"The whole point is that when the visitor enters the dome - this sphere where all this happens - he or she, actually with their own actions, influences the experience," Salonen explains. "So in a way, everyone gets a tailor-made experience and everybody's experience is going to be slightly different."

Laila premiered in the fall of 2020 in Helsinki and went on to win the Fedora Digital Prize, Europe's largest opera and ballet competition. The opera will make its international debut in Hong Kong with HKAF as co-producer. With the Hong Kong government prioritizing innovation and technology plus art and culture, Laila is a good fit.

"Laila is easy to position as it is a huge production," Ho states. "Along with HKAF's 50th anniversary, it will be one of Hong Kong SAR's 25th anniversary events. It makes sense for Laila to be part of these two milestones."

"There is a whole generation of audience members who have grown up with computer games," Salonen notes. "A computer game gives you a certain degree of agency. There are millions if not billions of people growing up with this idea of being able to influence a narrative. We felt it was about time for classical music to embrace that concept - to be in a dialogue, an interactive dialogue, with the audience."