Thoughts on Robert Ashley's "Concrete"?

the previous two -- I love the librettos, but the music was increasingly losing me -- I liked parts of 'Dust', especially the opening, but 'Celestial Excursions' was losing me -- is 'Foreign Experiences' even further in that direction?

I love Tom Hamilton's sound design on the previous ones but I think maybe I'm missing Tyranny, as you do

The recording layers a recent (2002) performance of Sam Ashley & Jacqueline Humbert doing the two-voice version of the text over a background of the earlier (I assume mid-1990s, cause the ensemble matches the BAM cast) seven-voice production with electronics/mix/etc by Robert Ashley, Sam Ashley & Tom Hamilton.

The live quality of the main vocals (especially Sam's) makes this livelier than Dust & Celestial Excursions (though I like those better than Milton Parker seems to), but it's still presented in the same basic sound world as the newer pieces.

Any opinions on which of these 3 a newbie should see, or does it not matter?

http://www.lamama.org/

The stories & texts are the main thing and I like those equally in all three. I think I liked the music best in 'Dust', but 'Concrete' might even be even better live, all the music/sounds are made from these floating ghostlike whispers, sort of a modern update of 'Automatic Writing'.

I really wish I were in NYC for these.

I am going with my boyfriend to see "Celestial Excursions" on Saturday, Morbz. So we vote for that one.

I'm going to that show of Celestial Excursions as well! Look out for the kid in the dirty jeans and gray sweatshirt.

i rarely visit this board and have only posted here, like, three times, but i went to see *dust* last night and it was fantastic. better than i would've expected. i'd never seen his stuff staged before -- watching the performers made the stories feel much more lively. glad i bought tickets to all three.

So the textual base of "Celestial Excursions" is sort of old people muttering? I'm there.

So the textual base of "Celestial Excursions" is sort of old people muttering? I'm there.

yeah. and the textual base of *dust* is old homeless people muttering, and the textual base of *concrete* is just one old person muttering.

They should stage these in the MoMA film theaters as an interactive thing!

London People may be interested in this. Next Thursday, 29th Jan.

"Screening of "A Necessary Music" by Beatrice Gibson, made in collaboration with Alex Waterman,narrated by Robert Ashley, followed by "An Evening with Robert Ashley", a talk by Will Holder.

http://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=OGFuaHE3MW50NDcwbTJ1bG83cW9zMmtubzAgY29ja3BpdHRoZWF0cmVAZ29vZ2xlbWFpbC5jb20&ctz=Europe/London
http://www.theshowroom.org/
http://www.anecessarymusic.org/info.html

what i wouldn't give to see those 3 operas.

i fucking lost my fucking tickets to Dust & Concrete, which reminds me i must call the box office and see if i can get replacements :(

celestial excursions was probably the best spent two hours of 2009 so far. i did not entirely "get" the drawing, dancing figure. was this a representation of someone coming to terms with their body as it ages?

:o any luck, ian?

My favorite passages in "CE" were the Beckett baguette and Ozzie Smith.

Gotta say hell yeah, "Celestial Excursions" was amazing, seconded. I think that in the original version the dancer person was doing stuff throughout the show as a continuous other level of activity, and this new staging kinda gives her "solos" which focus all the attention on her. I'm wondering what it would be like in the older version, but I'm guessing it might be kind of distracting given the multiple streams of speech/text/sound/music already underway. At any rate, a really great experience. Too many things are called "mind-expanding" that aren't, but I think sitting and taking in a Robert Ashley opera really deserves this because it does do quite elastic things to your consciousness.

Yes, I called the box office and they can just print me new tickets.

Are you & M still going to be in town, Squirrely? Or did you see them all over the weekend?

I'm back in Bmore writing Shakespeare lectures with Martin- he might go back to NYC for more though, as we only saw that one.

ok really wish I'd been there

had some lukewarm things to say about the recorded version upthread, but I listened again this weekend in lieu of getting to actually see this, and the stories are so good, I can imagine how great this must have been live

he's been on such a roll the last ten years getting these recordings out. the "Foreign Experiences" and "Now Eleanor's Idea" boxes are both fantastic as well, hopefully we can get stagings of those as well, but this is the oldpeople trilogy

("Foreign Experiences" is basically the story of an academic at a new residency in the 70's slowly detaching & losing his mind a bit while writing a piece -- the story works in and of itself but if you're a superfan, all the gossipy details about late 70's Mills College & his train of thought while working on "Automatic Writing" put it over the top)

"I have to get out of this shitty apartment it's starting to follow me home"

I was trying to explain to people why I was busy this weekend. Kept stumbling, knowing it wasn't right to say "going to the opera." But not quite knowing how to inform people of the importance of these Ashley pieces.

i've been telling the clown joke all week btw. even though it's an old joke, seeing it in celestial excursions really upped the relevance re: my life & humor.

Anyone going tonight?

I will be there in spirit, these sound so fantastic.

i saw concrete last night and celestial the other night. i think dust was probably my favorite, though concrete was a close second. celestial has never been one i loved, but i'm definitely glad i got to see it. great performances, really -- seeing this stuff live makes you realize what tremendous focus it requires from the singers. plus, yeah, they're very funny.

re: the drawing/dancing figure in celestial excursions: i didn't get -- or like -- her. the weirdness of ashley operas is so muted and nonthreatening -- i always think of it as "midwestern weirdness," probably arbitrarily. but the dancing lady was too deliberately kooky -- it brought that haunted feeling of his works to the level of cartoon or something. plus, it was, forgive me for saying, way too much like something from <em>inland empire</em>, a movie i love, but one i like to keep separate in my mind from robert ashley operas.

way too much like something from <em>inland empire</em>

one of my friends mentioned TP's Log Lady.

Thought "Dust" tonight was great. Though as with Celestial, there were things that didn't quite work for me, for one reason or another. Want to think about it more before I start trying to articulate it.

woke up this morning "talking about theosophy" in my head.
that was a great bit.

one of my v v minor quibbles was about the length of some of the songs in the latter half. one chorus too many maybe, or maybe a little bit too musical theater. but that could just be a reflection of my attention span & unrefined eardrums.

p.s. in crazy coincidence, t0ny c0ult3r sold his copy of the celestial excurions CD to the store last night. funny. we had a conversation about thom4s buckn3r. gonna have to take that libretto on the train with me. serious shit.

any more baseball refs?

not in this one.
though someone was telling me he has an entire piece about baseball. i'll have to look into that.

sorry to be the anomaly who keeps butting in, but yeah, ian, i agree with you on the pop-song cycle in dust -- it does get a little too broadway for my taste. kinda overworks the showbiz aspect of humb3rt & buckn3r's voices. in all these operas, sam ashley was my favorite performer -- even when he wasn't singing, i couldn't keep from watching him.

Sam Ashley is a secret weapon. He's got some great compositions of his own, several great bands like Cactus Needle Project which never got to that last step of releasing anything (though two great collaborations are on the Ben Azarm CD 'Neoapplictana')

I like Humbert's showbiz voice because it's showbiz but wrong, her cadence throws in all these melodies you never expect but they're always beautiful, even after you get to know her style I'm always still surprised. But Buckner -- I hate saying this but I just don't like his voice, and sometimes I just skip his featured tracks on the CDs.

agreed that humbert's voice has a surprising quality to it, and it really freshens the showbiz moments -- it's almost like listening to cory daye, from dr. buzzard. still, the "aria" from dust is about two minutes too long, and it's not her best moment, i don't think. as for buckner, seeing him onstage made me like him a lot more -- he always has this plaintive, fucked-up look on his face that makes his voice sound more tortured than refined.

man, i've never heard any of sam ashley's stuff outside of robert ashley's operas. i'll look for that ben azarm cd.

I've heard that feeling about buckner reiterated a lot in the past week.
I don't find his voice or style offensive, but there's nothing in it that i love.

I do like his singing on the second disc of 'Atalanta', he really sounds like a lunatic there. less classical opera, more random squealing.

the Azarm CD is a bit all over the place, but these two tracks make it:

"< P;R 362" - 16:38 Cactus Needle Project: Ben Azarm / Sam Ashley / Bob Gonsalves / Jim Horton
Untitled 2 - 21:43 Ben Azarm & Sam Ashley

RIP big man.

this'll be the one I watch once I get home

http://www.discogs.com/Robert-Ashley-Atalanta-Strategy/release/1035019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQBpire6jhw&feature=kp

http://vimeo.com/38729104

late period Ashley is not precisely where I would start as an introduction -- very literal both in theme and the degree to which the vocal melodies traditionally trace the tonality of the instrumental music, but as someone who went through every single record he ever put out in chronological order, recent Ashley is a wonderful way for me to say farewell (that's why the painting doesn't look like her... the irreversibilities keep piling up... we don't grow back legs)