CulturePulp.

Candide: The Live Comics Adaptation.

Occasionally, the awesome folks at the Portland Opera invite a bunch of cartoonists (incl. yrs. truly) to come watch dress rehearsals and sketch whatever we want.

On Monday, the Opera invited us to the dress rehearsal of "Candide." (Everyone's Twitter posts from the evening are collected here and at #pdxcandide. The Opera is rounding up everyone's drawings here.) As usual, I speed-drew a "live comics adaptation" of the show, during the show. When the lights came up, I put down my pen.

The resulting comic is after the jump.

'Oregon Art Beat' on 'Comics Night @ The Opera'

Last January, the Portland Opera invited about 20 cartoonists (including yrs. truly) to watch (and draw) a dress rehearsal of Puccini’s "Turandot." KC Cowan and a camera crew from OPB's "Oregon Art Beat" followed us around that night as we drank at Morton's, got a backstage tour and sketched the performance.

The resulting video aired on Thursday, Oct. 27. Click the embed above (or here) to watch it.

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Oregon Art Beat: Opera Comics (opb.org)

Bonus Slideshow: Comic Artist Night at the Portland Opera (opb.org)

EARLIER: 'Turandot: The Live Comics Adaptation' (CulturePulp.com, Feb. 5, 2011)

Portland Opera's 'L'Heure Espagnole' and 'L'Enfant et les Sortileges': The Live Comics Adaptation

On Monday, March 28, the Portland Opera held its final "Drink n' Draw" -- inviting a handful of PDX cartoonists to the Newmark Theatre to quaff beer, eat pizza, get a backstage tour, and watch a dress rehearsal of two Ravel one-act operas, "L'Heure Espagnole" and "L'Enfant et les Sortileges."

(God, I love that I live in a city where this sort of thing happens.)

I was just over a virus that spent a week staggering wino-style through my body, so I didn't draw as much as usual. But I managed to assemble low-calorie "live comics adaptations" of both (very entertaining) shows.

My drawings after the jump -- along with links to drawings by other, better cartoonists. These sketches will also be on display in the rotunda-level lobby of the Newmark Theatre during the Friday, April 1 performance of the two mini-operas -- possibly with a few artists in attendance.

'Turandot: The Live Comics Adaptation'

We did it again. On Monday, Jan. 31, the Portland Opera invited about 20 cartoonists to watch (and draw) a dress rehearsal of Puccini’s “Turandot.”

Before the show, the Opera gave us free food and wine at Morton’s. Then they gave us a backstage tour at the Keller Auditorium. And then they encouraged us to draw whatever we wanted during the rehearsal.

I stuck to my usual plan, drawing a “live comics adaptation” during the performance. (You can also download the comic as a PDF.) 

Click here to check out the Portland Opera's gallery of dozens of sketches from all the attendees — all of them reacting in completely different ways to what was happening onstage. These sketches will also be on display in the Keller Auditiorium during the Friday, Feb. 4, 2011 performance of "Turandot" -- possibly with a few cartoonists in attendance. Come on by and pick up a free print version of this comic -- and maybe even print versions of my "live comics adaptations" of "Rigoletto," "The Barber of Seville" and "Pagliacci" while you're at it.

Links to work by all the artists -- and candid photos taken during the evening -- after the jump.

A very quick 'Hansel & Gretel' opera sketch.

 
The Portland Opera once again invited cartoonists to drink and draw a rehearsal of one of their productions -- this time of "Hansel & Gretel." I couldn't make it this time, but I did make this very quick sketch from the publicity stills. Click here to see the other, better sketches by other cartoonists.

'Pagliacci: The Live Comics Adaptation'

On Monday, Sept. 20, the Portland Opera invited me -- and nearly 20 other, better cartoonists -- to watch a dress rehearsal of the Opera’s production of "Pagliacci" and "Carmina Burana."

I drew another “live comics adaptation” during the performance, mostly from my theater seat. The pictures were speed-sketched in a spiral-bound sketchbook during the show. The comic strip was assembled the next day from the drawings.

You can also download a PDF version of this comic right here. (It contains two bonus panels of "Carmina Burana Funnies.")

Before the show, the Portland Opera plied us with complimentary food and wine at Morton’s, then gave us a backstage tour at the Keller Auditorium. The evening was dubbed “Comic Artist Night @ The Opera.” (Here's the official press release.) I hope it’s the first of many — because it was an absolute gas.

The "Comic Artist Night" sketches will be on display in the Keller Auditiorium during the Friday, Sept. 24, 2010 performance of "Pagliacci" and "Carmina Burana," with a few of the cartoonists (including yrs. truly) in attendance. Come on by and pick up a free print version of this comic and maybe even my "live comics adaptations" of "Rigoletto" and "The Barber of Seville," while supplies last.

Click here to check the Portland Opera's collection of dozens of sketches from the other artists who attended — some of Portland’s finest cartoonists, no joke — working in media ranging from pen and ink to finger and iPad screen. You can also find more work by the individual artists online at these links:

• Steve Lieber: [ blog post ] [ a photo I took over his shoulder ]
• Indigo Kelleigh: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
• Matt Wagner
• Erika Moen
• Trixie Biltmore: [ draft art ] [ finished sketches ]
• Terri Nelson
• Natalie Nourigat
• Cat Farris
• Ron Chan
• Colleen Coover: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] (also: YouTube video of Coover drawing on her iPad during rehearsal)
• Jesse Hamm
• Aaron McConnell
• The #pdxoperacomics feed on Twitter
• Barry Johnson's reflection on the evening at ArtsDispatch
• The Portland Mercury's Alison Hallett weighs in on "Comic Artist Night"
• Laura Hudson's ComicsAlliance summary of the night, w/ art roundup
• OPB: "Comics Drawing At The Opera"

Thanks to the Portland Opera for letting me participate in yet another of their barmy/cool PR experiments. The Opera’s ridiculously open-minded marketing team (which includes Jim Fullan, Julia Sheridan and Claudie Fisher) cooked up "Comic Artist Night" as a fun/inclusive way to expand on the "live comics adaptations" I’d done previously for their productions of “Rigoletto” and “The Barber of Seville.”

Thanks to all the remarkable performing artists involved for letting us scribble while they worked. You can learn more about the show and buy tickets here. It's a great show.
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'Pagliacci: The Live Comics Adaptation' (CulturePulp @ WebcomicsNation)

NOW ONLINE AS A WEBCOMIC: 'The Barber of Seville: The Live Comics Adaptation'

 

UPDATE: Now you can read the whole thing online as a nice linear webcomic. Or you can download a 16-page PDF of the "live comics adaptation" booklet I made for the "Barber of Seville" cast and crew.

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Tonight (Friday, May 7), barring disaster, I'm going to try and draw a "live comics adaptation" of Portland Opera's production of "The Barber of Seville" as part of their regular "Blogger Night at the Opera" promotion.

Here's the live comics adaptation I did for them last year, of "Rigoletto."

Phone-cam photos of hastily made drawings should start appearing in my Twitter feed sometime after 6 p.m. tonight (Friday, April 7). I'll use the hash tag #pdxopera. (UPDATE: Or you can download this PDF of the results or read it as a webcomic.)

Fellow live-bloggers will include Brandi Parisi of All Classical 89.9 FM and Bob Hicks and Laura Grimes of ArtScatter.

'Rigoletto: The Comics Adaptation': the booklet: the giveaway

UPDATE: All booklets given away! Thank you for your interest!

So I have these ten Chick-tract-sized print versions of "Rigoleto: The Comics Adaptation." I designed this little booklet as a souvenir for the Portland Opera's cast and crew.

I will give away each of these ten copies, signed, to the first ten people to e-mail me here with the subject line "Rigoletto." (If you live outside the United States, you'll have to pay me a couple of bucks in postage via PayPal; we'll work it out.)

Of  course, if you just want to make your own booklet at home, print out this PDF and follow the instructions after the jump.

CulturePulp 82: 'Rigoletto: The Comics Adaptation'

So on Friday, May 8, 2009, the Portland Opera invited me and five other writers to participate in a “Blogger Night @ The Opera” performance of “Rigoletto.”

We got a backstage tour and sat at a special table in the lobby -- where (before and after the show and during intermissions) we were to chronicle our “Rigoletto” experience.

There was no way I was going to out-blog my pal Geoff, who shot the whole backstage tour with his Flip and posted the video on YouTube before the show even began. So I broke out a Sharpie and drew a “live comics adaptation” of the opera instead -- posting the drawings to Twitter as the show unfolded.

I've now organized those drawings into a linear comics format. You can read it now at Webcomics Nation. You'll also find links at the end of the comic to all the other "Blogger Night" coverage.

TONIGHT: Live-blogging 'Rigoletto'...

As part of a new-media promotional experiment, the Portland Opera has graciously invited me and several other local online writers to live-blog the Opera's production of "Rigoletto," with a backstage tour and everything.

As I'm almost completely ignorant of opera going into tonight -- the Portland Opera specifically wanted newbies for this gig -- this may present an opportunity for laughter and learning. (I hear singing may be involved!)

I'll start posting updates in this space around 7 p.m. If there's some sort of unforseen technical disaster, I'll instead post updates to my Twitter feed. There may be photos and funny drawings.

We're rolling. The fun begins after the jump. There will be many misspellings, and too many of them will be of names. Latest posts at the top.