DIVAS & CONTRABAIXOS: Robert Ashley

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24.1.07

Sound Poetry

Depois da série Big Ego (II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII) e das óperas de Robert Ashley, o conceito de Sound Poetry - Música Fonética - Escrita Poética Acústica já não é estranho... mas ainda pode ser assim: Larry Wendt e Stephen Ruppenthal.

Para contextualizar, leiam o próprio Larry Wendt, Narrative as Genealogy: Sound Sense in an Era of Hypertext.

18.1.07

Dust

Antes da Laurie Anderson, esteve no ar um extracto desta ópera. Ontem, esqueci-me de lançar o post. Ei-lo, para quem quiser consultar e continuar a saborear a amostra.

DUST, an opera by Robert Ashley and Yukihiro Yoshihara (video direction) whose imaginary setting is a street corner anywhere in the world, where those who live on the fringes of society gather to talk, to each other and to themselves, about life-changing events, missed opportunities, memory, loss and regret.

Five "street people" recount the memories and experiences of one of their group, a man who has lost his legs in some unnamed war. As part of the experience of losing his legs, he began a conversation with God, under the influence of the morphine he was given to ease his pain. Now he wishes that the conversation, which was interrupted when the morphine wore off, could be continued so that he could get the "secret word" that would stop all wars and suffering. (90 minutes)

1. Friends (15:00)
2. Theosophy (9:57)
3. The Priest (9:57)
4. If There's Anything... (9:57) [excerpt]

5. The Little Gun (9:57)
6. Friends (2:53)
7. No Legs (8:30)

Disc 2
1. Don't Get Your Hopes Up (6:02) [excerpt]

2. Just One More Time (6:56) [excerpt]

3. It's Easy (4:36)
4. The Angel of Loneliness (5:04)

AQUI

15.1.07

Perfect Lives

Robert Ashley, solo voice; Jill Kroesen and David Van Tieghem, chorus; "Blue" Gene Tyranny, keyboards; David Van Tieghem, non-keyboard percussion; Peter Gordon, music producer; Paul Shorr, soundtrack producer.

Perfect Lives has been called "the most influential music/theater/literary work of the 1980s." At its center is the hypnotic voice of Robert Ashley. His continuous song narrates the events of the story and describes a 1980's update of the mythology of small town America. Perfect Lives is populated with myriad characters revolving around two musicians — "R", the singer of myth and legend, and his friend, Buddy, "The World's Greatest Piano Player". They have come to a small town in the Midwest to entertain at the Perfect Lives Lounge. As Robert Ashley describes in the opera synopsis, "they fall in with two locals to commit the perfect crime, a metaphor for something philosophical: in this case, to remove a sizable about of money from The Bank for one day (and one day only) and let the whole world know that it was missing."

The eloping couple, Ed and Gwyn, the old people at the home, the sheriff and his wife (Will and Ida) who finally unravel the mystery, and Isolde who watches the celebration of the changing of the light at sundown from the doorway of her mother's house are some of the characters who journey through the seven episodes of the opera.

Derived from a colloquial idiom, Perfect Lives transforms familiar material into an elaborate metaphor for the rebirth of the human soul. It has been called a comic opera about reincarnation.

Disc 1:
1. The Park (Privacy Rules) (24:25)
2. The Supermarket (Famous People) (24:53)
3. The Bank (Victimless Crime) (25:03) [excerpt]

Disc 2:
1. The Bar (Differences) (24:48) [excerpt]
2. The Living Room (The Solutions) (25:07)

Disc 3:
1. The Church (After the Fact) (24:44)
2. The Backyard (T'Be Continued) (24:45) [excerpt]

AQUI