Butterfly's Trouble opening night on Broadway

I'm so pleased! Butterfly's Trouble is listed in Time Out New York under Theater off-off-Broadway (not under opera and not under classical music) and under Best Bets. Reason 1: I want to appeal to a general theater audience. Reason 2: Butterfly's Trouble is something new - not quite opera and not quite musical theater. It uses music and the voice to enhance a drama. We have wonderful singers, but this is not really about their wonderful voices, but rather about a total theater experience.

Facebook Friends, do come to our show:

1. Butterfly's Trouble at the 45th Street Theatre 354 W 45th St.
Puccini’s masterpiece, Madama Butterfly, is transformed from grand opera to intimate music-theatre:Blending Puccini's opera with David Belasco's play, Madame Butterfly.
 Ray Luedeke's English Language adaptation uses just 2 singers, one actor, and four instrumentalists  to stunning effect.
    • Sat., Jan. 7, 8:00
    • Sun, Jan. 8, 2:00
    • Tuesday, Jan. 10, 8:00
    • Wed., Jan. 11, 2:00 & 8:00
    • Thurs., Jan. 12, 8:00
    • Fri., Jan. 13, 8:00
Order tickets at:
    • www.voiceafire.com
    • or Tel 866-811-4111

2. The Art of Love / Into the Labyrinth at Merkin Concert Hall 129 W 67th St.
a world premiere multi-media event featuring Ray Luedeke's original, virtuosic score for two pianos, Ronald Hurwitz's riveting visuals, shot in Paris, and a text adapted from a manual banned for two thousand years, Ovid's the Art of Love. The performers are the internationally famous Bergmann Piano Duo and actor Charles Murray And more - a first half featuring music for two pianos by Ligeti, Bolcom, and Bergmann.
    • Monday, Jan. 9 at 8:00 PM
Order Tickets at:
 http://kaufman-center.org/mch/event/the-art-of-love-into-the-labyrinth/
Tel 212-501-3300


For more information visit:
http://www.voiceafire.com
http://pwusk.powweb.com/voiceafire/ButterflysTroubleEnsemble.htm
http://pwusk.powweb.com/voiceafire/Art%20of%20Love%20/ArtofLoveInformation.htm


Happy New Year,

Ray & Dulce

Ray Luedeke
Voice Afire Pocket Opera and Cabaret
www.voiceafire.com
tel 646-370-4802
cell 646-639-4216
rayluedeke@gmail.com

Butterfly's Competition

Be warned! Butterfly's Trouble has competition - on the same Broadway block and around the corner.
Better buy a ticket before Jan. 7 and before you are tempted. http://www.voiceafire.com
First temptation is (or was) Harry Potter (actually, Daniel Radcliife) starring in How To Succeed in Business - only a half block away. For the moment, Harry is out of town. Whew!

Then there is Daniel Rickman in Seminar - same street, different block!

And gentlemen please avoid this (around the corner):

Luckily for our Jan. 9 show, The Art of Love, at Merkin Hall on 67th St., the only competition is at Lincoln Center, just around the corner.

Should we have booked The Art of Love at The Gentlemen's Club?

Opening Night and E Blasts

This Saturday, Jan. 7 at 8 PM is opening night (runs Jan. 7-13) for Butterfly's Trouble at the 45th Street Theatre. This coming Monday, Jan. 9 at 8 PM is opening (and closing) night for The Art of Love at Merkin Concert Hall.

My director, Heidi Lauren Duke, says to me, "Are you doing E blasts?" I say, "Isn't that Spam?"
She says, "Try Constant Contact". http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp

Here's the dilemma: Everybody zaps Email without opening it. To get around this problem, we have Facebook and Linkedin, etc. But for these sites, spam is a horrific crime, punishable by ostracism.
OK But how do I let people know that I have shows that they really should see/hear?

True confessions: I have turned into an E blaster. And I use enticing titles.
For instance I used the title "Trouble at ISPA (ISPA is International Society for the Performing Arts, holding a conference here in NYC next week and of course, Trouble refers to Butterfly's Trouble, my show.

Clever, Eh? Ha, Ha, right? Wrong! The title (heading) got some of the ISPA people to actually take a look at the email. Boy were they pissed - tricked into opening an email announcing an event they should attend - they are arts presenters, after all. There were angry messages to the president of ISPA. And I have been warned - but with a smile - the President understood my little joke.

So next title is "Butterfly's at ISPA".  What do you think?

By the way, for tickets to Butterfly's Trouble and to The Art of Love try my website:
http://www.voiceafire.com

Consider yourself E blasted!

Ray

How to Find 50 Sopranos

On January 7 Voice Afire will begin our first Broadway run - one week at the 45th Street Theater for Butterfly's Trouble, our revamped Big Apple version of The Pocket Madama Butterfly. 

Rehearsals start Nov. 14, and it has been quite a journey.  Along the way we have learned heaps. We now know how to advertise and find rehearsal and audition space, and find and rent theaters both on and off Broadway. We know how to advertise for actors, publicists, booking agents and singers - especially sopranos. 

Butterfly's Trouble is being done on a very modest budget, although for us it is quite a stretch. We are renting a theater, renting 4 weeks of rehearsal space, and paying to showcase at the 2012 APAP Conference here in New York. We have hired a director, a stage manager, a designer, a lighting designer, a publicist, and a booking agent. Our performers are donating their time for an embarrassingly small amount that we call an "honorarium". And the time is considerable: 4 weeks of rehearsal and one week of performances. The money restrictions prevented us importing our talented Canadian crew. 

So we advertised on the internet. And 50 sopranos applied to sing Cho-Cho-San! Of these we actually heard 20. And some were really wonderful. It was a difficult decision to make, but we wound up not only with a terrific Cho-Cho-San, but even a terrific understudy for Cho-Cho-San.

Here's where we advertised:

1. http://www.playbill.com/jobs/find
2. Yvonne's Audition Postings on Facebook
3. http://www.starnow.com/
4. http://www.backstage.com/bso/index.jsp
5. www.classicalsinger.com
6. www.yaptracker.com

Hope this is helpful to someone else. Let me know if it is.

Ray

Butterfly's Trouble at Festival

Awesome! Truly Awesome! On July 28 Voice Afire put on Butterfly's Trouble, Act II at the Festival of the Sound. It received a well-deserved standing ovation.

Inga Filippova-Williams as Cho-Cho-San was stupendous,

as were Michael Marino as B. F. Pinkerton and Colin Fox as Butterfly's adult son, Trouble.
And hats off to the band: Sergei Nikonov on violin, Colleen Cook on clarinet, Paul Widner on cello, and Chris Donnelly at the keyboard. Karen Wood, as director, did a miraculous job.

Check it out on Youtube:
Selections from: http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire?gl=CA&hl=en#p/a/u/0/46_dUDMmVA4
Act II Part 1a: http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire?gl=CA&hl=en#p/a/u/1/0eCUxmYxH-8
Act II Part 1b: http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire?gl=CA&hl=en#p/a/u/2/wTNPnRsK_lI
Act II Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire?gl=CA&hl=en#p/u/3/VXZChYhygjE

Butterfly's Trouble uses material from both Puccini's opera, Madama Butterfly, and David Belasco's play, Madame Butterfly. Do let me know what you think of the net result.

Ray
rays@interlog.com

A Classical Cabaret and Gatekeepers

In September I attended Arts Midwest in Indianapolis and heard an inspirational talk on the uses of the Internet for promoting concerts. A blog and social media guru named Chris Brogan was mentioned. In my usual "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead" style, I went out and bought his books. http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

In Trust Agents and in Social Medai 101 Chris Brogan mentions people called "Gatekeepers." Gatekeepers are the people and organizations who guard the people who really matter - for me, presenters and arts managers.

It used to be that there was the telephone. Important people had unlisted numbers. Now E-mail has mostly replaced the telephone as the preferred means of communication. But E-mail communication can be blocked by the gatekeepers.

For instance, my long-suffering wife and collaborator, Dulce has been trying to communicate by E-mail with a concert series called the Algoma Festival  http://algomafallfestival.com/, a perfect fit for Voice Afire's new show A Classical Cabaret. But, in spite of having met the people who run this series, in spite of also finding their e-mail publicized by the Canada Council, she finds it impossible to get an e-mail through. Even a simple text bounces back. What's more, the so-called contact info on their website pertains only to their box office. The Algoma Festival has made itself completely impermeable to anyone but their close friends and relatives, as far as we can surmise. In Algoma the good old boy network reigns supreme.

Here is what I would like them to see:

Is that so offensive? Am I trying to sell Algoma viagra or fake Rollex watches? Am I telling them a rich, inknown relative has left them millions? No, I'm just trying to get them to consider a show that they might find useful.

Comments, advice, commiseration?

I Love NY

There are a lot of things you won't know about New York unless you live here, as I have for the past 6 months. For me as a composer, the most amazing discovery has been the number of really good concerts, plays, dance programs, you name it going on here every night. And most of it dirt cheap or free. Scary!
Thursday night I heard a terrific concert by the Bryant Park Quartet www.bryantparkquartet.com at the Austrian Forum. Price: please make a $5 donation.

The first half included a quartet by Györgi Kurtag - 15 short and interesting movements. The second half was the Op. 59 No.1 Beethoven Quartet. Heaven itself, sublime, overwhelming. So you can imagine my consternation when my wife, Dulce, the perfect tabula rasa audience, commented "pretty." Ludwig would have been spinning in his crypt. I'm pretty sure he intended many things - but not "pretty." More grist for my rant No. 384 that this old music doesn't work anymore, at least not the way the composer intended.

Another reason I love NY. I'm looking for a Director for The Pocket Madama Butterfly http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire#p/u/9/TtgI3Qu5P_k. A search on the internet produced a long list of names, of which I e-mailed 6 rather well-known and experienced NY stage directors, not really expecting a reply. To my pleasant surprise, four of them actually e-mailed me back and offered help! I'll mention Nathanial Merchant as just one of these princes of the NY theater world. Thank you, Nate.

http://nathanielmerchant.com/

In Toronto the same sort of message solicited nothing but a cold shoulder. I remember a note from the Canadian Opera Company http://coc.ca/Home.aspxdismissing what I had offered as "not an opera" (there was a non-singing actor involved) and therefore not worthy of consideration. 

Maybe I'm exaggerating a tad. Toronto's Factory Theater http://www.factorytheatre.ca/, while saying my work wasn't in their mandate, did recommend a very useful book. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to send out works for theater or music theater. Check out Dramatists Sourcebook published by Theatre Communications Group in (you guessed it!) New York. 

http://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dramatists+sourcebook&tag=msncahydra-20&index=aps&hvadid=56783740&ref=pd_sl_27at0t614p_e

This book lists the method of submitting material to just about every theater in America. In Deember I sent out 56 packages with a letter of inquiry, a 250 word synopsis, a 10 page dialogue sample, and a recording of I Confess, I Have Lived, my Pablo Neruda pocket opera. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/voiceafire#p/a/u/1/hkTWoVOqDu4

We'll see. It's NY. Anything is possible!