Turing Test opera heads for Edinburgh fringe

A Scottish composer, arranger and guitarist is to premiere an opera entitled The Turing Test at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 

Julian Wagstaff's opera is described as a story of "lust, betrayal and academic rivalry" set in the world of artificial intelligence. 

The chamber piece is orchestrated for six voices, 12 instrumentalists and a singing computer.

It was inspired by a display in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology museum in Boston about English mathematician Alan Turing's test for human-level intelligence in a computer. 

"When I saw this exhibit in March 2006 it suddenly crystallised a number of ideas which had been with me for a while looking for a means of expression," Wagstaff wrote on his site.

"I had been struggling for several months to find a subject for a chamber opera I had planned to write - and suddenly here it was.

"It was a story of rivalry, betrayal, love, hate, envy and triumph - the very stuff of opera. I wrote the scenario on the plane back to London the following day, and the piano score was completed around nine months later."

Wagstaff is also co-author of the Guitarmaster music transcription software application.

The Turing Test forms the principal component of the composer's recently completed PhD portfolio, and will run from 15-19 August at the Augustine United Church on Edinburgh's George IV Bridge.