Performance

Perfect Lives

1 upcoming performance in New York

Robert Ashley’s *Perfect Lives* is a seven-part television opera from 1983, shaped as much by editing and framing as by music. Built from spoken text, repeating patterns, and fixed structures, it treats everyday American scenes as material for a composed narrative rather than theater. In New York, Ashley’s work became a touchstone for downtown artists testing what “opera” could mean outside the house, and its later home-video releases helped it circulate beyond a one-time broadcast. Its calm insistence on pacing over display is its quiet provocation.