Saturday, March 19, 2011

Jazz Opera "Leave Me Alone" by Dan Plonsey & Harvey Pekar


Poster illustrated by Pekar Project artist Joseph Remnant. He's also illustrating the Cleveland
graphic novel, One of Harvey's last works in book form. Dig his neo-crumbesque style.



Harvey wrote the Libretto for this performance held at Oberlin College January 2009.
I thought the set design, songs, music and lighting were superb in capturing Pekar's
essence. From what I've known of him and coming over to his house, that's all he had was a
sofa in the middle of his living room in front of a fireplace joined with a coffee table loaded with books and papers. He even had a trash can in the middle of the room for all of the fan mail envelopes he needed to throw away. Various bookshelves and built-ins of more books and records with random unframed posters and art dotted on the stark white walls. It felt more like a bohemian bachelor's pad than a living room.

2 comments:

  1. A small segment of Harvey's opera is now available online at Real Time Opera's Youtube Site https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJvKehHx6o4.

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    1. This is excellent for Harvey Pekar & Dan Plonsey fans - thank you for chiming in Real Time Opera!

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