ROBERT ASHLEY CELESTIAL EXCURSIONS
i.c.w. HOLLAND FESTIVAL (students € 10)
Robert Ashley-music, libretto and direction, Robert Ashley and Tom Hamilton-electronic orchestra, Sam Ashley, Thomas Buckner, Jacqueline Humbert, Joan La Barbara, Robert Ashley-vocals, ‘Blue’ Gene Tyranny-piano, Tom Hamilton-live mix and sound, David Moodey-light design, Cas Boumans-technical coordination and sound
In his opera Celestial Excursions, composer Robert Ashley focuses on the subject ‘old age’. What goes on in the minds of people when they know that they are in ’the autumn’ of their lives? As the founder of the legendary Once Festival and the creator of the genre video opera, Ashley himself is not all that young. The charm and warmth of the Celestial Excursions can be found in the field of tension between flexibility driven to perfection and the obvious old age of the performers. The cast, with Robert Ashley himself, his son Sam Ashley, Thomas Buckner, Jacqueline Humbert and Joan La Barbara brings, in a simple set with five little tables, a deliciously confusing bed time story for grown ups. An exceptionally sober and ‘non-technological’ performance. The program has no intermission and beware! no admission after the concert started.