Welcome to CTRL+ALT+Recit

Welcome! This blog documents a new kind of collaboration—between ChatGPT and our opera team at Oakland University—for our 2025–2026 production of Alcina. While the opera itself was chosen before this AI experiment began, the direction we’re taking it in is entirely new territory for us.

So why this project?

Like many of you, I’m both excited and uneasy about the future of art in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. If a computer program can generate ideas and material as fluently as ChatGPT, what does that mean for creativity? I don’t have the answer—but I believe we need to explore the question.

I also know that AI is not going away. As artists, we can’t ignore it or wish it away. We either learn to work with it—or risk being left behind. For my students, AI will be part of their native artistic landscape. For me, this project is a way to meet that future head-on, thoughtfully and creatively.

From my perspective, this is a project about collaboration—not automation. It’’s important to me that my students still receive the full scope of artistic and technical training that our productions normally offer.

Here’s what I plan to build—all in collaboration with ChatGPT (and some of it is already underway):

• A concept for the opera — ✔️ completed

• A new script for the opera — ✔️ completed

• A blog documenting our process, reflections, and detailed records of both successes and failures—including the exact prompts and responses we use -- In progress, obviously

• Video interviews with creators and performers

• Academic research, including IRB-approved questionnaires for students and audience members - approved, in progress

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The list may evolve, but that’s the roadmap for now.

I'm interested in your suggestions about how I might encrich this project, or your thoughts on integrating AI. Let me know in the comments.

Here we go!