Premiered at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY on October 29, 2011 as part of composer James Ilgenfritz's residency.
"The Ticket That Exploded: an Ongoing Opera" is an experimental opera written by composer James Ilgenfritz and staged (entirely with video) by Jason Ponce. The opera is based on the William S. Burroughs novel The Ticket That Exploded, and employs many of the literary techniques Burroughs used in his original texts. We made specific use of his cut-up technique in this project; James' music is partially composed and partially improvised, and my visual design uses a combination of found footage and live processing, created with custom software that allows a high degree of flexibility while performing. True to Burroughs' cut-up style, this semi-composed approach allows for unscripted juxtaposition of sonic and visual materials, and the spontaneous creation and destruction of meaning. The opera is therefore 'ongoing', since no two performances can ever be the same.
Jason Ponce: live video
Anne Rhodes, Megan Schubert, Ted Hearne, Nick Hallett: Voices
Steve Dalachinsky, Ryan Opperman, Melissa Hughes: Video voices
Nick DeMaison – conductor
Denman Maroney / Julianne Carney / Nathan Bontrager – strings
Ty Citerman / Taylor Levine – guitars
Douglas Detrich / Josh Sinton / Jay Rozen – winds
Vinnie Sperazza / John O’Brien / Andrew Drury – percussion
