'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.

 Links to art by the participants (at their own webpages and elsewhere):

• Yours truly
• Matt Grigsby
• Joelle Jones: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]
• Dylan Meconis
• Barry Deutsch
• Trixie Biltmore: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ blog post ]
• Adrian Wallace
• Indigo Kelleigh
• Derek Stubbs: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
• Aaron McConnell: [ 1 ]
• Jared Souza: [ 1 ]
• Cat Farris
• Michael Brumage: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] 
• Ron Chan: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ blog post ]
• Ron Randall: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ]
• Terry Blas: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
• The #pdxoperacomics feed on Twitter

Assorted candid photos from the evening:

• "Drink N' Draw" pre-func at Morton's.
• Portland Opera's Julia Sheridan greets the artists, promises "intermission surprises." Oregon Art Beat films.
• Pre-func: Hey, it's Matt Grigsby and Joelle Jones.
• Joelle signs the thank-you poster to Morton's -- she's giving Turandot a "sleeve."
• Dylan Meconis sketches.
• Adrian J. Wallace sketches.
• 20-odd cartoonists getting a backstage tour. (Photos are princes Turandot's had killed.)
• We climbed up to this narrow elevated "gallery." it's dual-raked, like the stage, and sorta freaked me out.
• Erika Moen poses w/ Trixie Biltmore's sketched comment that she looks like "the world's hottest Elmo."
• Our intermission surprise: "Pong" from the show comes out and talks to us. Lookit that coat!
• Backstage ropes in the Keller Auditorium
• The view from the stage that night

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'Turandot: The Live Comics Adaptation'

 

Comments

[Peter]

I'd really love to read this comic in its entirety, but alas the second half is a dead image and the PDF link is broken. Do you by any chance have a link for me that enables me to finish reading it?

[Michael Russell]

Here you go, Peter -- I just put together a 79-page PDF ebook of all my "live comics adaptations" of Portland Opera productions, and Turandot is in there: http://culturepulp.typepad.com/OperaDrawnQuickly-LINEAR-WEB.pdf

[Peter]

Many thanks! You rock. I'm downloading it as we speak