How far are we prepared to go in search of a perfect partner? How does technology development affect our view of love?

In the opera show Love Machine, the main character Manda receives an offer that she just cannot refuse: The robot Ion is programmed entirely according to her idea of ​​a dream partner.

"In the beginning, there is one thing that you can control, own and control," says Elisabeth Meyer, who does Manda's role.

Realize the absurd in his situation

Joa Helgesson, who plays Ion, agrees:

- The farther the opera goes, he picks up impressions from other robots and situations and thus forms his own worldview. With that, he begins to realize the absurdity of his situation, he says.

And it soon turns out that what Manda has got is not at all what she longs for.

- The love project has become very much: what I want from the other and what the other should be for me, says librettist Sigrid Herrault and composer Johan Ullén further reflects:

- You say, "I'm such a person and I need this in my life," but do you know it? Often, you can be attracted to things that are not part of your self-image.

"Love is already a commodity"

These questions are not only subject to the characters in the Love Machine. The cartoonist Liv Strömquist draws in the comic book The Reddest Rose casts a grim picture of how more and more people find it difficult to feel in love. Isabelle Ståhl's novel Right now I'm here depicting a fast and superficial Tinder culture at a time when our longing for closeness is perhaps stronger than ever.

- Finding love is placed on contract and in this way love is already a commodity. If you pull it a few more turns, the object of love is also a commodity: a love machine, says Johan Ullén.

But if we can already imagine algorithms solving our love problems, what is the next step?

Who controls who?

- If technology learns to mirror us and satisfy our needs, then who controls the technology? Is it us or how much can technology control us? asks Sigrid Herrault.

The Norrbotten music and Piteå chamber opera are behind the performance which premiered in Piteå on October 12 and is now touring further. The work is performed by Norrbotten NEO, led by David Björkman.