Experiments in Opera Presents THE TRAVEL AGENCY IS ON FIRE: BURROUGHS CUT UP THE GREAT BARDS Tonight

Experiments in Opera-the composer-driven collective with an air of mad scientists in the lab-opens its 2015-16 season with the premiere of 11 new commissions for ensemble and voice in The Travel Agency is On Fire: Burroughs Cuts Up the Great Bards, presented tonight, October 16, 2015 at the East Village avant-garde haven The Stone.Two sets take place at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. Each set features different songs.

Renegade William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) has been called the Godfather of the Beat Generation, known for his hallucinatory prose and startling, nontraditional accounts of drug culture, most famously in the book Naked Lunch. Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius." Jack Kerouac named him the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift." His strange and fascinating life is documented here.

Burroughs helped to pioneer the art form of cut-ups: repurposing of previously published materials into new art forms. After selecting the source texts, Burroughs cut them up, and juxtaposed the fragments to select random word combinations and create new compositions.

In celebration of the recently published book, The Travel Agency on Fire (edited by Alex Wermer Colan)-a selection of cut-up experiments by Burroughs on texts by a range of canonical writers, including Arthur Rimbaud, William Shakespeare, and James Joyce-EiO has commissioned 11 new vocal works from composers Travis Just, Charlie Looker, Jason Cady, Aaron Siegel, James Ilgenfritz, Anne Guthrie, Lukas Ligeti, Katie Young, JG Thirlwell, Elliott Sharp, and Natacha Diels.

Each composer was challenged by their assigned Burroughs cut-up to reorganize their own musical work around non-linear narratives, and embrace a logic of sound and experience.

The evening's performers include James Ilgenfritz's Anagram Ensemble with vocalists Michael Douglas Jones, Amirtha Kidambi, Meagan Schubert, andVince B. Vincent.

Co-founded in 2010 by a trio of "talented, fearless, and congenial" (The Brooklyn Rail) composer-performers in Brooklyn-Matthew Welch, Jason Cady, and Aaron Siegel-EXPERIMENTS IN OPERA is a composer-driven initiative, featuring recent and new works with innovative answers to the traditional questions about how to connect words, story and music.

EiO's work is playful and funny as well as serious and dark. They catalyze opportunities that make strong connections to life and art in the twenty first century. EiO makes no meaningful distinction between the merit of short works and long works, full productions and concert presentations, live works and works on video. Artists from a variety of styles and backgrounds find common cause with their efforts and feel at home in their productions.

Since 2011, Experiments in Opera has produced 37 new works, collaborating with over 100 performers, designers and directors from the New York City artist community. Experiments in Opera has presented the work of more than 26 composers including Georges Aperghis, Robert Ashley, Gelsey Bell, Roddy Bottum, the Cough Button collective, Jason Cady, Joe Diebes, Ruby Fulton, Nick Hallett, Gabrielle Herbst, Sam Hillmer, John King, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Daniel Kushner, Jonathan Mitchell, Jessica Pavone, Paul Pinto, Dave Ruder, Aaron Siegel, Justin Tierney, Leaha Maria Villarreal, Matthew Welch and John Zorn.

Over the last four years, EiO has produced its events at Abrons Arts Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Spectrum, Roulette, and Issue Project Room.

EiO's subversive impulses and numerous commissions from both rising and established composers has led The New Criterion to hail the organization as "a vital part of the subculture." The 2015-16 season alone will see 20 world premiere vocal works, from newcomers such as Emily Manzo to experimental master Elliott Sharp.

This current year, in addition to performances at The Stone and Anthology Film Archives, EiO will continue to organize What Goes On, an annual publication that features writings on and about contemporary opera, written and edited by other creators of contemporary opera.

All of the work developed with Experiments in Opera is documented extensively in videos, images and writings that are available in an online catalogue atexperimentsinopera.com. These insightful looks into the origins of artists' ideas and their working habits help to support EiO's mission of building a more robust conversation about how and why opera works the way it does.

To post a comment, you must register and login.