The Daily Telegraph

Robot conductor gearing up for debut night of Italian opera

- By John Phillips in Rome

A SWISS robot is to conduct a Tuscan orchestra in the works of Giuseppe Verdi alongside Andrea Bocelli.

The robot, called Yumi, will be the most ambitious attempt yet for a humanoid to attempt the nuances of conducting an orchestra. “Yumi has a very high level of fluidity of gesture, incredible softness and expressive nuancing,” said Andrea Colombini, the director of the Teatro Verdi in Pisa where the concert will be staged.

Created by ABB, a Swiss company, Yumi will make its orchestral debut on Sept 12 directing the Lucca Philharmon­ic. The performanc­e will provide the climax of a gala event for the first Internatio­nal Festival of Robotics being held in Pisa, organised by the prestigiou­s Scuola Normale of Pisa university and the ARPA foundation of which Bocelli is the honorary head.

Bocelli will sing as Yumi directs La donna è mobile (‘Woman is fickle’), a famed scene from the third act of Verdi’s Rigoletto, while soloist Maria Luigia Borsis will accompany the robot by singing the soprano aria O mio babbino caro (‘Oh my beloved father’) from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini.

“The only precedent was when ASIMI, the Sony humanoid robot, directed an orchestra in 2008, but in that case the robot mainly used only its right hand,” Il Fatto Quotidiano stated.

“This is an incredible step forward given the rigidity of gestures by robots until today,” said Colombini.

“Here we have very advanced technology that guarantees incredibly expressive nuances.” However, he said robots are unlikely to put human directors newspaper out of business. “The robot uses its arm, but the soul, the spirit, are always those of man,” Colombini added.

“The robot will remain only an aid, perhaps to carry out, in the absence of the director, the first rehearsal, before the director steps in to make the adjustment­s that create the material interpreta­tion of a musical piece.”

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