Speakeysie News Desk

One-Act Opera Challenges Audiences to Consider the Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing the Human Experience

(Atlanta, GA — May 18, 2026) — This June, The Atlanta Opera, together with Georgia Tech Arts, will present the world premiere of Water Memory (Jala Smriti), a one-act opera that weaves a deeply personal story of memory, family, and identity with timely questions about the role of artificial intelligence in our lives. Based on the lived experiences of composer Kitty Brazelton and librettist Vaibu Mohan, Water Memory follows Janani, a South Asian woman navigating the early stages of dementia, and her adult children already beginning to grieve their mother. Set in a hydrangea garden and performed to a score that blends live instruments with an electronic soundscape, the chamber opera challenges audiences to consider the ways emerging technologies can enhance the human experience rather than replace it.

Brazelton and Mohan were commissioned by The Atlanta Opera after winning the Antinori Foundation Grand Prize in the 96-Hour Opera Project in June 2024. Responding to a prompt to integrate AI into a creative work, the pair created a 10-minute scene called Water Memorythat formed the basis of this new work. While some teams in the 96-Hour Opera Project have established partnerships, Brazelton and Mohan met for the first time through this project.

Although Water Memory engages with questions around artificial intelligence, the work itself was created entirely by human artists, without AI assistance. Partnering with Georgia Tech Arts, Brazelton and Mohan engaged with specialists in gerontology and memory-assistance programs through the Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology & Society, the A-I CARING Institute, the Aware Home Research Initiative, and the Center for Inclusive Design & Innovation, specializing in aging-in-place and technology for older adults.

A talk-back panel discussion with representatives from each organization will be presented on Sunday, June 14, after the performance. 

Performance and Ticket Information The world premiere of Water Memory (Jala Smriti) is part of The Atlanta Opera’s NOW Festival (New Opera Works), celebrating its fifth year of championing bold, contemporary storytelling.

Water Memory is scheduled for two performances on Friday, June 12, at 7:30pm, and Sunday, June 14, at 3pm, at the Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech. June is designated as Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month. 

The festival also includes a new edition of the 96-Hour Opera Project, the company’s signature new-works competition, with a public showcase on Saturday, June 13. The event features five new opera scenes followed by an awards ceremony at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College.

Tickets for each day’s event are $35. Festival passes, valid for admission to the competition showcase and one performance of Water Memory, are available for $50. The talk-back panel discussion is free to ticket holders. Tickets may be purchased at Atlantaopera.org or by calling 404-881-8885. Discounts are available for students, young professionals, veterans, and groups.

About Water Memory

Directed by Gregory Luis Boyle and conducted by Chaowen Ting, the cast features Marian Anderson Award-winner Idira Mahajan as Janani. She is joined by Georgia native Tanushka Sisodiya and tenor Joseph Ittoop as Janani’s adult children, Malli and Chandru, with soprano Samantha Burke as MPO (Memory Processing Operator). Jacob Lay performs the role of Joseph and is also a member of the chorus. Additional members of the “Hydrangea” chorus include soprano Hanan Davis, alto Ebony Collier, and tenor Timothy Miller. The creative team includes the renowned scenic designer Donald Eastman, costume, wig, and makeup designer Emmie Tuttle, and lighting designer Ben Rawson.

The development of Water Memoryhas been deeply shaped by a dynamic collaboration with Georgia Tech, bringing together innovation in both music and technology. Ting, a faculty member at Georgia Tech’s School of Music, has played a pivotal role in fostering connections between the university and the opera, helping to expand the project’s creative and technical scope.

As part of the creative process, Brazelton learned to work with Max/MSP, a software platform widely used to create and manipulate sound in real time. As a result, conductor Ting will lead a traditional chamber ensemble alongside percussionist TeAiris Majors, a graduate research assistant in Georgia Tech’s School of Music, who will blend live and recorded audio to create a layered, mixed-reality experience within the work. In this production, microphones will be used to weave the singer’s voices directly into the music, allowing them to interact with electronic elements as part of the score itself.

“Collaborations like Water Memory show how powerfully the arts can bring scientific questions into human focus,” said Christopher Rozell, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology and Society. “By connecting research with lived experience, projects like this invite audiences to engage with dementia not just as a diagnosis, but as a deeply personal journey. They also open the door to meaningful conversations about how emerging tools like artificial intelligence might one day support care, connection, and dignity for individuals and families.”

Brazelton is a New York-based American composer, bandleader, improviser, singer/songwriter, and instrumentalist. She has released albums and fronted bands across varied genres, including contemporary classical, electronic music, pop, art rock, punk, and avant-garde jazz. She was awarded the 2012 Carl von Ossietzky Composition Prize for Storm, a choral setting of Psalm 104 featuring Brazelton’s own retranslation. Her opera Art of Memory was awarded the 2015 Grant for Female Composers from Opera America.

Mohan is a writer, performer, producer, educator, and arts administrator based in New York City. Hailing from Arizona by way of Canada and Tamil Nadu, India, she brings a unique global perspective to her multifaceted career in the arts. As a specialist in musical theater, Mohan works as a lyricist, book writer, and composer. Her work has been showcased at prestigious venues including Lincoln Center, Rattlestick Theater, Brooklyn Children’s Theater, The American Opera Project, and The Phoenix Theater Company. She was a 2021 Write Out Loud Finalist.

About The Atlanta Opera

The Atlanta Opera’s mission is to break the boundaries of opera to create exceptional experiences for audiences everywhere. Founded in 1979, the company works with world-renowned singers, conductors, directors, and designers who seek to enhance the art form. Under the leadership of internationally recognized stage director and Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun, The Atlanta Opera expanded the mainstage productions at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, launched the acclaimed “Discoveries” event series, and the innovative 96-Hour Opera Project. In recent years, the company has been named among the “Best of” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has been nominated in 2016 and 2023 for an International Opera Award, received an ArtsATL’s 2019 Luminary Award for Community Engagement in recognition of its successful Veterans Program in partnership with the Home Depot Foundation, and the 2023 Governor’s Award for the Arts and Humanities recognized the excellence of the 96-Hour Opera Project. In addition, The Atlanta Opera was featured in a 2018 Harvard Business School case study about successful organizational growth, and Zvulun presented a TEDx Talk at Emory University titled “The Ambidextrous Opera Company, or Opera in the Age of iPhones.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Atlanta Opera was one of the only companies in the world to create a full, alternative season, consisting of no less than 40 live performances in two different outdoor venues, including a revolutionary custom-designed circus tent. The critically acclaimed productions and concerts were streamed in HD on the newly created streaming platform “Atlanta Opera Film Studio,” which continues to allow The Atlanta Opera to reach a global audience. National media coverage of the “pandemic season” included features in the Wall Street Journal and PBS NewsHour. Reflecting on the company’s achievements over the past decade, Musical America declared, “The Atlanta Opera Has Arrived.”