Perfect Lives: An Opera

by Robert Ashley

Cultural Writing. As Ashley tells it..."An over-the-hill entertainer, and his somewhat younger pal, Buddy (The World's Greatest Piano Player), find themselves in a small town on the Midwest circuit playing at The Perfect Lives Lounge. They become friends with the son and daughter of the local Sheriff, and the four hatch a plan to do something that if they are caught, it will be a crime, but if they are not caught it will be art. They've set themselves a kind of metaphysical challenge." This book includes the complete libretto, in seven episodes, followed by thirty-eight pages of Robert Ashley talking about his ideas and the making of the opera. "He's opera's James Joyce...no other new music theater so rewards effort by getting under your skin and molding your consciousness"-The New York Times.

Genres: Music, Poetry, Fiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 22, 2011

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential text compendium to one of my favorite compositions of all time.

[Evan Pincus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen the TV version a few times and have listened to the opera in various forms countless more, but in my opinion, "book-length poem" might be the most immediately effective way to digest the entirety of the project (Private Parts: The Record is my favorite planet of the Perfect Lives galaxy, but that's only two of seven parts, and the complete recording is... well, more than a bit of-a-time with its chintzy keyboard patches and Downtown Music soundscapes). John Cage was right, this is a work to be held on to like a religious text - a pure and brilliant diamond of distinctly American spirituality, strangeness and mundanity. I'm not the same person I used to be, indeed! Long live the Avant!

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

i've never read an opera before. this is a wild imaginative romp into '70's HELL YEAH