07 maggio 2024

 

Ha mancato per pochissimo l'inclusione in Long Play, in compenso avrà tre giorni tutti per sé: è il nuovo allestimento di Foreign Experiences, opera del 1993 di Robert Ashley (1930-2014) facente parte della stupefacente quadrilogia Now Eleanor’s Idea. Andrà in scena al Roulette a Brooklyn, NY, dal 9 all'11 maggio, in una versione plurale che ripristina le originali sette voci dal vivo rispetto alle sole due dominanti nella versione in cd (Lovely Music, 2006).

A proposito della maledizione californiana che ispira il lavoro ebbe a dire l'autore: "There is a peculiar, eerie, indescribable loneliness in all of California. It permeates everything. Maybe it's just the water. Maybe there are other places of the same sort in other places on Earth. But California could be special, the place where the early European-American settlers, upon arriving - if they got there, realized they would never get back. California is the end of the Earth. That feeling is passed on from generation to generation without anyone recognizing that it is part of them. And it is passed on to the most recent arrivals. Even today in the precious palaces of Malibu, in the vast developments between Los Angeles and San Diego, in the spreading domestic comfort of the San Francisco Bay area it's there. It poisons our movies and TV shows. It generates the most violent and interesting mystery novels. Even now jet travel doesn't cure it. It comes down on you hard when you get off the plane and step outside the terminal. It drives some people mad."