Monthly Archives: September 2013

THE ENCHANTED ORGAN: A PORN OPERA

“The Enchanted Organ” is a burlesque opera that celebrates sexuality and satirizes the porn industry, while parodying four hundred years of the operatic tradition. Composer/librettist team Gordon Beeferman and Charlotte Jackson bring wit and polymorphous perversity to this journey through “the Magical Kingdom of Porn,” a place where past and present, straight and queer, and dead and living converge. Drawing on influences as diverse as classic 70s porn soundtracks, baroque oratorio, Ancient Greek hymns, and the Nutcracker ballet, this work-in-progress is as close as you’ll get (or want to get!) to “aural sex.”

Duration: two hours, with one intermission. Instrumentation: alto sax/recorder/bass clarinet, violin, guitar/elec. guitar, bass/electric bass, organ/piano/harpsichord (2 players), drumset

Act I was premiered as a work-in-progress at Dixon Place, June 22-23, 2012, directed by Beth Greenberg.


“An Edifying Masque” from Act Two, performed at Operotica, New York City, January 2015

For more information, including videos and photos of our 2012 preview production of Act One, visit www.enchantedorgan.com.

MUSIC FOR AN IMAGINARY BAND

Limited edition 7″ released by Generate Records on its 10th anniversary. Pressed on green vinyl with a cover by Ian Crowther.

Gordon Beeferman’s IMAGINARY BAND is a (real) 7-piece group that explores the territory where classical ‘new-music,’ jazz and free improvisation intersect. Beeferman’s compositions range from the gnarly to the operatic, and are both incredibly detailed and very free; the band’s improvisational explorations are tethered to highly structured frameworks.

“[A] commanding avant-jazz ensemble…” Time Out New York

Read more about “The Imaginary Band.”