PDQ Bach and Peter Schickele Tour Schedule (Spring 2001)

P.D.Q.'S BACK, AND SCHICKELE'S GOT HIM!

Now, however, refreshed and desperately in need of money, the good professor has concocted a pair of presentations that might be described as "Two for the price of one!" or "A bargain at half the price!"

Each of the two programs, one requiring your local orchestra and conductor, and the other self-sufficient, combines into one heady gumbo examples of P.D.Q. Bach's egregious musical effluvia with some of Schickele's own off-the-wall rounds and songs, including the notorious rock `n' roll settings of famous Shakespeare speeches (as heard in the composer's solo song programs as well as on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion).

The pièce de résistance of PETER SCHICKELE MEETS P.D.Q. BACH (this program is the one requiring a modest-sized orchestra and conductor---although, actually, the conductor may be any size the orchestra wishes) is a suite of selections from P.D.Q.'s dramatic oratorio, Oedipus Tex, featuring soprano Michèle Eaton as Billie Jo Casta and tenor David Düsing as tenor David Düsing, with the Professor himself filling the boots of the charismatic title character. Also on this program is Swing Sweet, Low Chariot, which is an ingenious... hey, wait a minute---why should we give it away before you've bought a ticket?

The other program, requiring nothing but a piano, plus a decently-equipped and sold-out auditorium (Joke. They'll play for anybody who wanders in.) is entitled P.D.Q. BACH AND PETER SCHICKELE: THE JEKYLL AND HYDE TOUR; it also features Ms. Eaton and Mr. Düsing, performing such classic P.D.Q. classics as the recently-discovered Four Next-to-Last Songs and the heart-rendering Shepherd on the Rocks, With a Twist.

Both of these tastefully boffo programs are available as of February, 2001. Don't delay! Act now, before the Professor makes enough money to retire again.