Perfect Lives

Book excerpt: "Ashley, a legendary figure in American experimental music theater, has been a major influence on avant-garde composers and writers. His 1983 opera-for-television Perfect Lives was acclaimed in England but is not widely known in the United States. This publication of the libretto coincides with the release of a three-CD package of the opera itself. The text is a marvel of disjointed, flat, quintessentially American language, an apt reflection of the Midwestern locale of the plot. Readers who prefer conventional structure and logical syntax will be repelled by the Gertrude Stein-like fragmentation and maddening obscurity. The text, like all libretti, is an incomplete document, but here, amidst the flakiness, there are moments of great insight and humor. Ashley's candid remarks on the history of the opera and on the nature of composing itself make an entertaining epilog." --Larry Lipkis, Library Journal.