Tonight composer Pat Spadine’s Ashcan Orchestra perform their two-act chamber opera Apollo's Accidental Answer in it's entirety for the first time. Re-imagining of the ancient myth of Cassandra, the work presents an eyewitness account of the evolution of the universe, as the heroine struggles to give order to the visions that confuse her mind. Orchestrated for toy instruments, saw, water glasses, percussion and handmade gadgetry, with a sculptural backdrop of televisions and mechanical effects, the opera is a culmination of many facets of the ensemble's DIY ethos. Originally commissioned by Clocktower Productions in 2012, ISSUE is pleased to support this opera's premiere in its first full staging with new orchestrations.
Featuring Mezzo-Soprano Amirtha Kidambi as Cassandra; The Ashcan Orchestra includes Cory Bracken, Philip Panos, Shannon Sigley, Sam Sowrydra, Booker Stardrum, Austin Vaughn and Pat Spadine.
The Ashcan Orchestra is simultaneously the audio/visual work of composer Pat Spadine, a large collection of toy, re-appropriated, and "real" instruments, and a revolving performance ensemble based in Bushwick, NY. Since 2007 the ensemble has been employing everything from children's handbells, prepared tape recorders, stacks of discarded televisions, homemade circuitry, colored lightbulbs, mirrors, to more widely accepted noisemakers to create new music in forms more familiar than the instrumentation would lead the listener to believe. This process from humble and understandable beginnings to grander and more complex ends, has been a vehicle to both celebrate and emulate the physics that bind the known universe.
