Mannes School of Music to Present Robert Ashley Opera DUST

Mannes School of Music at The New School, now celebrating its centennial year, announces a four-performance run of Robert Ashley's groundbreaking opera, DUST, with a new production by William Gustafson and Troy Hourie.

With a score and libretto by Robert Ashley, this production of DUST will feature students from The New School's College of Performing Arts under the musical direction of long-time Ashley collaborator and friend, Joan La Barbara. Tom Hamilton, a member of the original production, will be involved as a production and musical consultant.

Composed in 1998, DUST combines live mixing and sound processing, improvisation, and pre-recorded music, all over a libretto based off of the free-associations, conversations, and waking dreams of five "street people." The highly experimental vocal delivery combines a range of traditional and unconventional vocal techniques, from singing and speaking, to mumbling and whispering. In writing DUST, Ashley created only a libretto with limited notation as a roadmap for performers, and required cast members to learn the work through listening rather than reading. The musical construct is remarkably original.

"Ashley's vocal style is quite unique in the literature of contemporary opera, requiring each singer to create the character vocally as well as theatrically, and using speech delivery shaped by intonation and exaggerated inflection," said Joan La Barbara, Mannes faculty and an internationally renowned vocalist who performed and collaborated closely with Ashley. "It is an important and unique opportunity for Mannes students to be able to learn this manner of singing, and it has been a pleasure to coach and mentor our young performers through this process. The layers of story-telling involved in the texts Ashley wrote explore first, second, and third person complexities, interwoven with historical context, and offer particular challenges to the acting skills of our young performers, who are brilliantly actualizing these tasks."

Zachary Woolfe of the New York Times has hailed this production of DUST as "the most tantalizing operatic offering by a New York conservatory this season." Woolfe further noted that it is a "symbol of [Mannes's] renewed focus on contemporary music".

"Producing this type of experimental work is not without its challenges, especially in a music conservatory environment," said William Gustafson, Stage Director and Associate Dean at Mannes. "We have been fortunate to have a great team and to have the space to allow our students to experiment and invent their own characters and performances in a highly organic way. Working with Joan La Barbara and Tom Hamilton has provided for a direct connection to Ashley's legacy while simultaneously allowing for a fresh approach to production creation. After finishing early work and a DUST workshop series with Parsons School of Design in April, we are very excited to now be presenting DUST to the public in a fully staged, new production"

DUST is set in English and will be performed in English without supertitles. Sound Design and live mixing are by David Van Tieghem (Mannes faculty and former Ashley collaborator) and Emily Auciello. Troy Hourie is the Scenographer and Paul Cegys is the Associate Scenographer. Julie Mason Groob is the Vice Dean for Production at The New School's College of Performing Arts. She has worked on DUST with Production Manager Melissa Futch and Stage Manager Suzi Bonnot.

Mario Diaz-Moresco performs the lead role, a homeless, nameless character. Julia Meadows is Lucille and Alexander Greenzeig is The Rug. Marisa Karchin and Samantha Scully share the role of Shirley Temple. Allison Gish and Evelyn Rivera-Cardenas share Green Pants.

"DUST has been the perfect project for Mannes and The New School. Robert Ashley could not have known when he wrote this groundbreaking work in 1998 that its message - one that calls attention to the societal ills of drug addiction, homelessness, and a disappearing social safety net - would be so timely nearly 20 years later," said Richard Kessler, Dean of Mannes and Executive Dean of the College of Performing Arts. "The New School has long been a home to artists who worked and lived outside of the mainstream, and who were often ahead of their time; Robert Ashley is among this cohort. We believe in the importance of presenting and celebrating artists like Ashley and the impact that their work can have on society."

DUST will be presented at Stiefel Hall (4th floor of 55 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011) on Thursday, February 2, 8pm; Friday, February 3, 8pm; Saturday, February 4, 3pm; Saturday, February 4, 8pm. Tickets are available at www.ticketcentral.com.

There will be pre-concert panel discussions prior to the opening performance on Thursday, February 2, and the Saturday matinee on Saturday, February 3. The panel will include William Gustafson, Joan La Barbara, and Troy Hourie.

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