Classically trained vocalist and violinist Kim Kirkman has taken the opera 'Tosca' down a very dark alley and smashed and grabbed its valuable melodies and chord progressions for what he calls a 'technopera', featuring house music and acid beats.

Almost everything else about the original has been left bleeding in the gutter, including the fat, bloated 3-hour length.

Kirkman now plans to take the waif-like 88-minute survivor on a whirlwind tour around regional Queensland during September.

Would composer Puccini approved? Maybe, as he was one of the first car racing enthusiasts around 100 years ago.

Kirkman and his collaborators based at CQU's Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Mackay have a new score, a new plot, new animated artwork with a nod to 'Sin City' and new costumes, props and sets.

"The live show involves projections onto a screen, the singers underneath, recorded backing music and live musicians augmenting the score, a chorus and me conducting," he said.

The setting of the story of villains, drama and revenge is a nightclub in present-day Rome, where a tragic love develops between a diva and a lighting designer, who are both protecting a prostitute from the mafia.

Kirkman's project has received funding support from The Regional Centre of the Arts, based at CQU.

There is a profile on lead performer Sophie Phillis here

'Tosca' will be staged at Mackay's CQCM Theatre tonight (Thursday) and will continue at Mackay from 8pm on Friday and Saturday, with bookings on 4940 7800; at Rockhampton's Walter Reid Centre from 8pm on September 21, with bookings on 4927 4111; from 8pm at CQU Gladstone on September 22 (tickets at the door) and from 6pm at Bundaberg's Shalom College on September 23, with bookings via 4155 8107.

A poster for the Rockhampton performance
Sophie Phillis who is playing and helping to write the part of Tosca