Perfect Lives Book

Robert Ashleys Perfect Lives forms the middle of a trilogy of operas that traces the history of the movement of consciousness across the United States, east to west. In these seven episodes. . . An over-the-hill entertainer, and his somewhat younger pal, Buddy (The Worlds 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 of them hatch a plan to do something that if they are caught doing it, it will be a crime, but if they are not caught, it will be art. Theyve set themselves a kind of metaphysical challenge. One of the tellers in The Bank is going to elope on a certain day with Ed, and in order to elope they have to go east into Indiana. The four decide to take the money out of The Bank, put it in the elopement car, and return it the next day. Gwyn and Ed elope, taking The Captain of The Football Team and his friend Dwayne with them for support. And at the same time, the seedy-looking older guy and his pal with two dogs (Permanence and Impermanence) come into The Bank and the dogs pretend they are fighting. The Bank Manager arrives as Isolde is about to throw a bucket of water on the dogs. She throws it on him, he goes into the safe to change his clothes and discovers that the money is gone. He announces that there is no money in The Bank, and because of the symbolic meaning of that moment the five tellers, Jennifer, Kate, Eleanor, Linda, and Susie, all see something. They each have a religious experience. Kate sees Perfect Lives, Eleanor falls in love at first sight, Susie quits because shes interested in opera. Everybodys career is totally changed. And there is the question of whether or not this is actually a real event. This book offers the complete libretto, followed by thirty-eight pages of Robert Ashley talking about his ideas. Listening to him speak, you find yourself set against your own rigidities in thinking, disturbed, inspired, paralyzed for the moment by a desire to understand, by the necessity to keep trying. . .Read More