AGO volunteer Bev Biderman has inspired an opera based on her  book Wired for Sound: A Journey into Hearing,  her memoir of learning to hear with a cochlear implant. The opera, titled TMIE, on the threshold of the outside world, music and libretto by Carlos Alberto Augusto, premieres in English this week in Lisbon, Portugal at O’culto da Ajuda, with other venues in the works. The intriguing “TMIE” in the opera title is the name of a gene involved in hearing and deafness.

Bev’s book provides a rare “inside” account of hearing with a cochlear implant, the first effective artificial sensory organ ever developed, tells the story of a deaf woman’s journey through deafness and into hearing. Bev has had a progressive hearing loss since she was a toddler.  It became profound by the time she reached her early teens, and from that point on, she was completely unable to understand any speech without lipreading. As an adult, she had surgery for a cochlear implant, and then — everything changed.  A new revised and updated version of Wired for Sound is now available as an ebook.

Bev describes how the opera came about:

A couple of years ago, I was contacted by the Portuguese composer, Carlos Alberto Augusto.   He said that his friend, the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer had suggested I read my book, “Wired for Sound bad: A Journey into Hearing.”   I imagine the suggestion came because my book deals so much ch with the experience of sound, and of music.  It’s a memoir of growing up deaf then learning to hear with a cochlear implant.   In any case, Carlos liked my book and had the idea of turning it into an opera.  I gave him a go ahead and the result is “TMIE, on the Threshold of the Outside World.”

While she was not directly involved in the creation of the opera, parts of her book made it into the libretto.  She hopes to attend a performance in Portugal in the fall.

Bev is currently an Evening/Weekend GG;  She recently presented at the National Docent Symposium on the topic of “Talks on the Dot: Bridging the Gap for the Tour Averse” (see our blog post for more details).

Congrats Bev!  We’re looking forward to your Canadian premiere.

For more info on Wired for Sound: A Journey into Hearing, click  here. For more info on the TMIE opera, click here.