Kickstarter has certainly become the vehicle de rigueur for taking productions of all shapes and sizes to the widest possibly audience.
This time, Alex Waterman needs your help staging the avant-garde stylings of the late American composer (perhaps thee greatest American composer we've ever had) Robert Ashley.
Newly imagined for the Whitney Biennial, Waterman looks to April 2014 for three Ashley operas, featuring 30 artists across three weeks.
His operatic triad consists of a recreation of Ashley's The Trial of Anne Opie Wehrer and Unknown Accomplices of Crimes Against Humanity (1968); a live television production--seriously, they're revamping the stage to pull this off--of Vidas Perfectas, the Spanish version of Perfect Lives ('83); and the premiere of Ashley's brand new sextet, Crash (2014).
Yeah, Waterman's project is très ambitious.
And yes, the very thought of it sends our brains (and our hearts) into a time warp, fondly remembering the operatic, idiomatic tropes of the deceased Wolfman, himself, Robert Ashley.
Of course, like we once did via Christ, Classicalites can do all things through Kickstarter.
With more than 30 artists and technicians involved--how else can you build a TV studio inside the Whitney Museum of Art for Perfectas?--no, Waterman's crowd-funded crusade ain't cheap. $55,000...to be exact.
Then again, just as the Jesus of Ann Arbor, Michigan taught us long ago, any worthwhile sonic union never is.
Again, like that other Christ urged, give what you can. And if you can give generously, please do it.
High-rollers would be wont to know that Waterman's offering a special benefit concert hosted by our friends at ISSUE Project Room on Monday, March 24 to all Kickstarter supporters who pledge $50 or more.
Pledges at the $125 level, or more, include a +1.
To find out lots more, about both Waterman and Ashley, go on over to the campaign's dedicated Kickstarter page.
To wit, here's the mission statement.
