Support

Supporting Vidas Perfectas

Composer Robert Ashley calls Vidas Perfectas the chance to tell "the story of a frame of mind that is always in eclipse." In a Q&A at Issue Project Room Ashley continued, "it's not meditation, it's something else.  It's a frame of mind that is reinforced by a certain kind of language.  And that frame of mind is so valuable, we can't let it perish.  It has to be kept alive somehow.  And now it's up to you."

Vidas Perfectas is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine this completely classic work by an essential composer, with his blessing and the involvement of his closest collaborators. With a cast and crew including Peter Gordon (the music producer behind Perfect Lives), Ned Sublette (Narrator), Elio Villafranca (Buddy, the World's Greatest Piano Player) and Sarah Crowner (Set Designer), Vidas Perfectas is at once a tribute and a totally new work— a new Perfect Lives for the 21st Century.

Vidas Perfectas will begin its second production phase in August 2012, co-produced by Ballroom Marfa. Two new episodes will premiere at the Crowley Theater (Marfa, TX), and shooting will begin for the television production of Vidas Perfectas. At the completion of all seven episodes, Vidas Perfectas will tour internationally, accompanied by a full recording to be released on CD and DVD.

Vidas Perfectas is the first step in an exciting new direction both for Robert Ashley’s music, and for American opera as a whole. We hope that you will join us in making it a reality.

For information on donating to Vidas Perfectas, please contact:

Eve Essex, eve@vidasperfectas.org

 

 

Limited Edition Prints

We are pleased to announce a series of limited edition prints, on sale in support of Vidas Perfectas. One hundred percent of proceeds from these artworks will fund the production expenses-- sets, equipment, artist fees-- for Vidas Perfectas.

For more information, please contact: info@vidasperfectas.org

Vidas Perfectas Poster, by Will Holder
Vidas Perfectas Poster

Designed by Will Holder for the premiere performance of Vidas Perfectas at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn.  

2-color offset print, 18x24 inches-- available in 3 colors, each in an edition of 200.
Vidas Perfectas print, designed by David Reinfurt
Commemorative Print

Designed by David Reinfurt, this print reinterprets Robert Ashley's graphic template for Perfect Lives.  

7 color offset print, 8.5x11 inches, edition of 350.
Trios 1 by Robert Ashley, Realized by Will Holder
"Trios I" (White on White)

Ashley's 1963 score for "Trios I" (White on White) realized by artist Will Holder with Alex Waterman. Three matrices of numbers are superimposed in matte white ink, gloss white ink, and embossing.

Limited edition of 50, 8.5x11 inches. 

MAJOR SUPPORT FROM

Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner, Fairfax Dorn / Ballroom Marfa, National Endowment for the Arts, Thomas Buckner

 

GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM

Andrew Kreps, Christie’s New York, Cheyney Thompson and Eileen, Quinlan Cameron Gainer and Olga Viso, Jon Gans & Abby Turin, Edee, Andy, Jan and Barry Zubrow, Ronaldo, Zachary Taylor, David Reinfurt, Ray and Donna Essex, Rob Teeters, Daniel and David Gutkin, Molissa Fenley, Andie S., Peter Gordon and Kit Fitzgerald, Josh Granger, Bonnie Wright, Erin Kimmel, Tommy McCutchon, Todd Shalom, NGM, Peter Galub, Cindy Bernard, You Nakai, Simon, Sarah Ball, Gary Owen, Ted Gordon, Dennis Vera, C. White, Allana Heiss, Peter Segerstom, Joshua Fried, David Grubbs, Mike Rosenthal, Patrick Hambrecht, Justin Martin

 

SPECIAL THANKS

Monica Del Torre/BOMB, Thea Westreich, Art Advisory Services, Ashley Carr, Suzanne Modica, Andrew. C Smith, Matthew Walker Ed Patuto, Mimi Johnson/ Performing Artservices, Jeff Hatfield/The Guild, Kelsey Knight Mohr, David Weinstein/ Art International Radio, Steve Smith, Daniel Pepice, Damian Calvo, Will Holder, David Reinfurt, Eli Keszler, Andres Santiago and Pepa Vigata, Larry and Judy Waterman, Nathan Hauenstein, Justin Martin, Ian Horowitz, James Mercer, Peter Segerstrom, Cooper Galpern

 

THANK YOU

Travis Just/ Incubator Arts Project, The Kitchen, Jeremy Roye, Max Zuckerman, David Noriega, Beatriz Bartolomé, Lynn Passy and Lewis Friedman

Upcoming:

Vidas Perfectas: three episodes

September 28, 2012

@ Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London

 

Vidas Perfectas: two episodes

September 29, 2012

@ Café Oto, London

 

Robert Ashley: talk and performance

September 30, 2012

@ Café Oto, London

 

"Waterman and his collaborators delicately transform Ashley’s music; it remains unmistakably Ashley, but Latin influences are teased out and foregrounded, by both Villafranca’s piano and by new shifts of rhythmic emphasis in the pre-recorded drum patterns. The performances in Spanish put Ashley’s libretto into motion in new ways."

 

—Frieze (Dan Fox)

“NOTHING LESS THAN THE FIRST AMERICAN OPERA, WRITTEN WITHIN AN AMERICAN LANGUAGE UTILIZING VARIOUS AMERICAN ATTENTION SPANS: SNIPPETS FOR THE CHANNEL SWITCHERS, LAYERS OF MEANING FOR THE SMART-ALECKS, SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, AND ACCESSIBLE. WORKS SUCH AS THIS PUT TO REST ANY DOUBTS IF OPERA CAN OR SHOULD SURVIVE, AND HOW."

 

—FANFARE (ALLAN EVANS)

"Ashley brings us a totally new form of opera that makes sung speech sound like talk, synthetic orchestration sound like unconscious thought, and the performance feel like dream that we can't wake from. Ashley didn't just reinvent opera he has reimagined the American musical landscape."

 

—Alex Waterman

"Vidas Perfectas juxtaposes characters as all-American as the captain of the football team and the homecoming queen with a shout out to Giordano Bruno, the monk, mystic and mnemonist ... But, above all what struck me was that the collision of these elements resulted in something far more affecting than the sum of its parts."

 

—Augusta Palmer

"Robert Ashley is not only an opera composer, but the greatest opera composer of the last half-century, and the most innovative opera composer since... Monteverdi. No one else has applied to opera the kinds of structure Ashley has invented. He has blazed a completely independent path. Robert Ashley is the postmodern opera composer. There is really no one else.

 

—Kyle Gann

"Robert Ashley changed the game completely. There is no other composer living today that has been able to create an entirely new kind of opera. Others have innovated, played with, polished up, improved upon or just added to the form as it has existed for the last few hundred years. "

 

—Alex Waterman

"Waterman has built Vidas Perfectas along the same lines as Ashley’s productions of Perfect Lives: with Gordon back on board as producer, and artist Sarah Crowner designing the sets, Vidas Perfectas ‘uses the social relations that were involved in making the music as the model for its remaking’, embracing conversation, improvisation and process to tint and colour the production in new ways."

 

—Frieze (Dan Fox)

"WHAT ABOUT THE BIBLE? AND THE KORAN? IT DOESN'T MATTER. WE HAVE PERFECT LIVES"

 

—JOHN CAGE

"In the Vidas Perfectas lounge, Spanish and English are mutually understood. They trade both languages as common currency. In Vidas Perfectas, the Americas are sewn back together through the beauty of heightened speech and song. It is still very much a comic opera about reincarnation. This time through we hope to rebirth a part of the American spirit in the process."

 

—Alex Waterman

“Separated from the humming drone of his music—his lyrics serve as odd masterpieces of American vernacular, recalling the loose tongue of Bukowski, the neurosis of Spalding Gray, and the abstract lyricism of Ghostface Killah.”

 

—The Village Voice

(Ross Simonini)

"Waterman and his collaborators delicately transform Ashley’s music; it remains unmistakably Ashley, but Latin influences are teased out and foregrounded, by both Villafranca’s piano and by new shifts of rhythmic emphasis in the pre-recorded drum patterns. The performances in Spanish put Ashley’s libretto into motion in new ways."

 

—Frieze (Dan Fox)

“NOTHING LESS THAN THE FIRST AMERICAN OPERA, WRITTEN WITHIN AN AMERICAN LANGUAGE UTILIZING VARIOUS AMERICAN ATTENTION SPANS: SNIPPETS FOR THE CHANNEL SWITCHERS, LAYERS OF MEANING FOR THE SMART-ALECKS, SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, AND ACCESSIBLE. WORKS SUCH AS THIS PUT TO REST ANY DOUBTS IF OPERA CAN OR SHOULD SURVIVE, AND HOW."

 

—FANFARE (ALLAN EVANS)

"Ashley brings us a totally new form of opera that makes sung speech sound like talk, synthetic orchestration sound like unconscious thought, and the performance feel like dream that we can't wake from. Ashley didn't just reinvent opera he has reimagined the American musical landscape."

 

—Alex Waterman

"Vidas Perfectas juxtaposes characters as all-American as the captain of the football team and the homecoming queen with a shout out to Giordano Bruno, the monk, mystic and mnemonist ... But, above all what struck me was that the collision of these elements resulted in something far more affecting than the sum of its parts."

 

—Augusta Palmer

"Robert Ashley is not only an opera composer, but the greatest opera composer of the last half-century, and the most innovative opera composer since... Monteverdi. No one else has applied to opera the kinds of structure Ashley has invented. He has blazed a completely independent path. Robert Ashley is the postmodern opera composer. There is really no one else.

 

—Kyle Gann

"Robert Ashley changed the game completely. There is no other composer living today that has been able to create an entirely new kind of opera. Others have innovated, played with, polished up, improved upon or just added to the form as it has existed for the last few hundred years. "

 

—Alex Waterman

"Waterman has built Vidas Perfectas along the same lines as Ashley’s productions of Perfect Lives: with Gordon back on board as producer, and artist Sarah Crowner designing the sets, Vidas Perfectas ‘uses the social relations that were involved in making the music as the model for its remaking’, embracing conversation, improvisation and process to tint and colour the production in new ways."

 

—Frieze (Dan Fox)

"WHAT ABOUT THE BIBLE? AND THE KORAN? IT DOESN'T MATTER. WE HAVE PERFECT LIVES"

 

—JOHN CAGE

"In the Vidas Perfectas lounge, Spanish and English are mutually understood. They trade both languages as common currency. In Vidas Perfectas, the Americas are sewn back together through the beauty of heightened speech and song. It is still very much a comic opera about reincarnation. This time through we hope to rebirth a part of the American spirit in the process."

 

—Alex Waterman

“Separated from the humming drone of his music—his lyrics serve as odd masterpieces of American vernacular, recalling the loose tongue of Bukowski, the neurosis of Spalding Gray, and the abstract lyricism of Ghostface Killah.”

 

—The Village Voice

(Ross Simonini)

© Vidas Perfectas 2012  |  info@vidasperfectas.org