The Pig, The Farmer and The Artist Plays La Mama, Part Of NYC Fringe 8/18-28

The Pig, The Farmer, and The Artist: An Adult Opera Satire about Art, Music, and Culture Opens at the Fringe NYC Festival August 2010 at the Ellen Stewart Theater at La MaMa, 66-68 East 4th Street

Dates & Times

WED 8/18 @ 8:30

FRI 8/20 @ 4:30
SAT 8/21 @ 2:15
SUN 8/22 @ 2:30
SAT 8/28 @ 7:15

To purchase tickets, visit www.fringenyc.org.

"Chesky is fearless; he'll venture anywhere if it's funny. Boredom was never an issue in the two-hour production. I can imagine this being a huge midnight hit."
Bruce Hodges, Music Web International-opera reviews

"Profane and profound.... a grand, entertaining, hilarious, and highly intelligent evening. As they say at the Met, Bravo!"
Martin Denton, newyorktheatre.com

"The Pig, The Farmer, and The Artist is a bit like falling down the famous rabbit hole in ‘Alice in Wonderland.'"
Oscar E. Moore, talk entertainment

About the Repertoire

This opera is a biting satire on our contemporary world. It attacks our present-day cultural malaise tangentially, making use of 'the pig' allegorically, and, in doing so, mocks and pokes cruel fun at the inverted values of our materialistic society. In the tradition of Gulliver's Travels, the composer has attempted to break through our world's impoverished consciousness and lay bare society's frantic but ultimately empty pursuit at meaning. It features a cast of 10 singers with a 10-piece chamber orchestra.

Synopsis

To avoid being slaughtered by a lunatic farmer, Shirley the cow (a former hooker from Amsterdam), and her transvestite husband, Harvey, escape to New York's East Village, where they soon become all the rage of the highbrow art scene. Back on The Farm, the Pig gets wind of their fame and follows to seek his artistic fortunes as well. Will the elitist critics accept the Pig's trendy conceptual art? Will the psychotic homesteader arrive in time to reclaim his prized hog? Will swine become the new black? This outrageous Fellini-esque satire superimposes the world of contemporary music onto the modern art scene, scorchingly skewering them both.

About David Chesky, music/books/lyrics

Miami-born David Chesky, a three-time Grammy® nominee, is composer-in-residence for the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, where his children's opera, The Mice War, is enjoying sold out performances. The opera will tour Asia during the 2010-2011 Season and will also be released on DVD.

David's works span both jazz and classical genres, and have earned him the distinction of being the only jazz composer ever to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Also a pianist, David performs with the Grammy-nominated group The Body Acoustic, an ensemble that performs a mixture of Latin jazz and 12-tone contemporary classical works. In addition to working with major classical orchestras, David has performed at the world-famous jazz club The Village Vanguard, as well as the Newport, JVC, and Monterey jazz festivals. Besides being a musician and composer, David is also known worldwide as one of the leaders in the advancement of technological research on high resolution recording techniques.

About A. Scott Parry, director

A. Scott Parry has garnered critical praise for his work in both opera and musical theater throughout the United States. He is currently a stage director on staff at New York City Opera, but has continuing associations with many other opera companies across the U.S., including, among others, those of Santa Fe, Dallas, Boston, and Des Moines. He has served on the School of Music faculty at Indiana University in Bloomington, and headed the Musical Theatre Faculty at Mesa Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. Directing highlights have included IL Barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Pacific, La cenerentola for Florida Grand Opera, and La traviata for Chautauqua Opera. As a librettist, Scott created an English language adaptation of Beaumarchais' La mère coupable, which is currently being set to music, and, as a composer, recently presented the New York premiere of his theatre song cycle based on the poems of Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

About Anthony Aibel, conductor

Anthony Aibel is known for excelling in many diverse areas of the arts. He is active as a conductor, composer, violinist, violist, pianist, actor, writer and editor. Mr. Aibel first conducted David Chesky's music on the 2006 Grammy-nominated recording Area 31. In 2009, he guest conducted the Los Angeles Youth Orchesta and founded The Piano Orchestra, a group he works with as conductor, composer and pianist. He is currently in his seventh year as a writer and editor for New York Concert Review, and his article on composer Percy Grainger was published in The New York Times. In 2000, Mr. Aibel was the conductor for the 10,000th concert of the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center. Mr. Aibel is the co-founder and, from 2001 through 2006, was the conductor, of The Mentoring Orchestra, a group that combined members of the New York Philharmonic with talented young musicians. Mr. Aibel is the only Juilliard graduate to have had three majors in music: conducting, composition, and viola. He made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 21, and his opera conducting debut at age 24 with Carmen at the Aspen Music Festival.

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