In his new production, Rolando Villazón—the tenor who has embarked on a brilliant second career as a director—retains the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps but uses its somnambulant plot to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind.

Vivien Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Her mother, however, is a product of that old patriarchal order. Exploiting it has earned Mrs. Warren a fortune – but at what cost?

When a black monolith is unearthed on the moon, scientists send a spacecraft to trace its signal to Jupiter, guided by the AI HAL 9000. As the crew faces technical failures and unsettling discoveries, their journey into deep space unravels questions about humanity’s origins and a cosmic force beyond their control.