NEON (a street opera) is theatre noir. In the metaphysical sense ... out of the darkness a blade of grass pushes up through the concrete. In the literal, it is simply: Terry, a young saxophone player working the streets for tips to survive, meets Evie, a spunky young runaway from Houston. They are mutually attracted to each other but she soon finds herself wooed by the Barker's incantations. He was a former lover and Evie slips into the darker side of life in order to protect Terry from him. Frustrated and hurting, Terry continues playing on the street until he successfully auditions for a band that is about to record and tour. His newly acquired success finds him back in the city, ironically, playing in a very posh room of a super modern hotel not too far from where he used to play for tips on the street. He is haunted by the memory of Evie and searches for her. Finding her, he offers her a way out. But her insecurity about what she has become in her own eyes is too much and in a vulnerable moment overdoses on heroin and dies in Terry's arms. INSTRUMENTATION 26 personnel CONDUCTOR/piano/synthesizer Yamaha DX7 2 (program bank #2 cartridge #21) for electric organ, (program "A" bank internal #5) for Tynes Rhodes KEYBOARD #2 (synthesizer Proteus 1 for string augmentation (program #001), guitar mutes (program #173), marimba (program #180), vibraphone (program #12), Proteus 2 for concert organ (program #063) and KORG M3R for distorted guitar (fretted instrument card program #00) and Roland 8 for sound effects (program sound effects card SN-R8-03) WOODWIND #1: Alto saxophone, Bb Clarinet, Flute WOODWIND #2: Alto saxophone, Bb Clarinet, Flute, Oboe, English horn WOODWIND #3: Tenor saxophone, Bb Clarinet, Flute WOODWIND #4: Baritone saxophone, Bass clarinet, Flute Horns 1 & 2 Trumpets 1 & 2 Tenor Trombone Tuba Percussion #1: trap set including high, medium and low suspended crash cymbals, ride cymbal, hi hat, snare, high, medium and low tom toms, kick Percussion #2: concert crash cymbals, glockenspiel, tubular bell ("A flat"), guiro, high, medium and low conga, sand blocks, Proteus 1 synthesizer (program #077) for steel drums 1st Violins 1, 2, & 3 2nd Violins 1, 2, & 3 Violas 1 & 2 Celli 1 & 2 Basses 1 & 2 (#2 also doubling on Fender type electric bass
About the Author: Hayden Wayne (born 3/2/49) (composer/librettist) began playing piano at the age of four and played tenor drum in the orchestra pit of The King And I at the age of five, performed his first composition in concert at the age of eleven, won 2nd Prize medal for piano solo from the New York State Music Awards at fifteen, performed with major-label backed bands as Man (CBS Records) and Jobriath (Elektra Records), and toured with Sly Stone, the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page, Billy Joel, The Chamber Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, Richie Havens, Richie Havens, Gladys Knight, The Fifth Dimension. As a composer, in 1983 Mr. Wayne opened a new theater for the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles with his metaphorical circus Wire, won $10,000 USD as national first place in 1987 from the National Institute for Music Theater with NEON (A Street Opera) . In 2002, NEON won a 25,000 DM prize in the International Prague Opera Competition. He was commissioned to write IN MEMORIAM: A CELEBRATION, by the Interfaith Concert of Holocaust Remembrance, which premiered at Saint John the Divine in New York in 1993. Subsequently linked with SINFONIETTA #1: The Klezmer and AN ELEGY INTO MADNESS, specifically commissioned for the Fiftieth Anniversary of Israel, and titled A TRIPTYCH, had its world première at Mandel Hall, the University of Chicago in January 1998. In February 1995, his SYMPHONY #4-FUNK had its world premiere at the Janacek Theatre in Brno, The Czech Republic. It sold out in one week seven months in advance. Mr. Wayne also has several film scores and award-winning commercials for television to his credit. To date, Mr. Wayne has written over four hundred compositions including: THE SYMPHONY OF FRIENDS, the ballet CIRQUE DE LA LUNE, DRACULA (Opera Erotica), PIANO CONCERTO #1-The Rock "n' Roll and CELLO CONCERTO #1 which are paired as a diptych: SINFONIETTA #2 (It's a Boy) and #3-The Emerald; VIOLIN/PIANO SONATA-The "Kraft"; The Symphonic Trilogy: #2-REGGAE, #3-HEAVY METAL, #4-FUNK; and SYMPHONY #5-AFRICA [A Tone Poem] (all recorded by the State Philharmonic of Brno, on New Millennium Records); the choral symphony SYMPHONY #6-THE GIFT; SYMPHONY #7-CELESTIAL DANCES and SYMPHONY #8-1421; THE NUZEROV STRING QUARTETS: #1-THE ROSENBERGER VARIATIONS, #2 THE ROMANTIC, # 3, 4 and 5, # 6,7 & 8, and # 9 & 10 performed by the Wallinger String Quartet; FIVE DANCES FOR CELLO AND PIANO and PIANO QUINTET #1 (all available on New Millennium Records) and hundreds of songs in various eclectic styles.