EL/AFICIONADO Comes to New York Live Arts

Performing Artservices, Inc. will present a new production of eL/Aficionado by the late American composer Robert Ashley, to take place at New York Live Arts, May 21-24, 2020. Written in 1987 and last performed in 1995, eL/Aficionado (72 minutes) is an opera scored for four voices and an orchestra of electronic instruments. Mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Butcher will sing the lead role of the Agent, a part originally written for baritone (Thomas Buckner). The other vocalists are Bonnie Lander, Paul Pinto, and Brian McCorkle. Music direction and sound design are by Tom Hamilton, and lighting and stage design are by David Moodey.

eL/Aficionado is from Ashley's Now Eleanor's Idea tetralogy from the early 1990s. It is the second opera to be given a new production; Improvement (Don Leaves Linda) was performed to critical acclaim at The Kitchen in February 2019.

eL/Aficionado is the story of a person on trial - on trial for her character and the quality of her answers, on trial for her skills of perception and her intelligence, on trial as a human being. The principal character (the Agent) is being cross-examined by two persons (Interrogators) under the direction of a third person (First Interrogator), who directs the narrative and comments on the Agent's answers throughout the opera. The Agent is required to recount her actions and explain her behavior in carrying out certain assignments, the circumstances of which are fully known to the Interrogators. She does not explain whom she works for, or even why she does what she does, but she is expected to respond without question to some deep obligation or contract with the past.

Although the opera's mysterious mood owes much to John LeCarré's world of espionage, it is not a spy story. The four scenes of the narrative are progressively concerned with events of an otherworldly nature while delving into the Agent's different life stages, from the present time to her earliest memories. Throughout the First Interrogator's remarks, there are passing references to analysis and to the world of dreams. eL/Aficionado is the trial of a mind or an imagination, of "every person" coming in contact with something foreign - the unknown.

Unique to the opera is a vocal technique, in which Ashley assigns a defining pitch to each character. Guided by a harmony or specific set of alternate pitches, the singers are asked to improvise around the pitch and invent vocal inflections that express the intent or meaning of the text. "The written melodies are only a part of the vocal characterization," Ashley explained. "Equally important are the decisions made by the singer in practice and in rehearsal and in the spontaneous inventions unique to [each performance]." The result is a hyper-dense score propelled by lush live voices, at times tense and suspenseful, at other times deeply lyrical and moving.

Music and libretto by Robert Ashley
Music direction by Tom Hamilton
Light and stage design by David Moodey
Performed by Kayleigh Butcher (the Agent), Brian McCorkle (First Interrogator), Bonnie Lander (Second Interrogator) and Paul Pinto (Third Interrogator)
Sound design and live mix by Tom Hamilton
Produced by Mimi Johnson/Performing Artservices, Inc.

May 21-23 at 8:00 p.m. and May 24 at 3:00 p.m.
New York Live Arts: 219 W 19th St, New York, NY 10011
Tickets: $25 /$20 students /$20 seniors
Box office: 212-691-6500