Perfect Lives, the world's first 'television opera,' almost single-handedly changed the way we think about opera, television and performance. Commissioned by The Kitchen in 1979 and co-produced by Channel Four in Great Britain, parts of the seven-episode series have been seen on American, Japanese, German, Austrian, Spanish and Australian television. It was also celebrated in Peter Greenaway's 1985 Four American Composers series.
In 2010, Issue Project Room was awarded an NEA grant for ALEX WATERMAN to produce a new version of Perfect Lives or Vidas Perfectas. Instead of simply reviving Ashley’s masterpiece, Director Alex Waterman is presenting an entirely new version for the 21st century from a Spanish-language translation by Javier Sainz de Robles, re-imagined on the Mexican/American border. Vidas Perfectas will present each of Perfect Lives' seven, 30-minute episodes in a stage and television production with all new cast, arrangements, and staging.
NED SUBLETTE as "R", the narrator & ELIO VILLAFRANCA as "Buddy -- The World's Greatest Piano Player"
Music produced by PETER GORDON
Sets designed by SARAH CROWNER
The first three episodes of Vidas Perfectas will premiere December 15-17, 2011 at at the Irondale Theater in Brooklyn.