ALL ABOARD: WE’RE GATHERING STEAM

Create your own opera-inspired song with Blob Opera, a new machine learning experiment by David Li in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture.

This machine learning experiment pays tribute to and explores the original musical instrument: the voice. Play four opera voices in real time. No singing skills required!

The team developed a machine learning model trained on the voices of four opera singers in order to create an engaging experiment for everyone, regardless of musical skills. Tenor Christian Joel, bass Frederick Tong, mezzo‑soprano Joanna Gamble, and soprano Olivia Doutney recorded 16 hours of singing. In the experiment you don’t hear their voices, but the machine learning model’s understanding of what opera singing sounds like, based on what it learnt from them. Try it out!