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Synopsis
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Based on Ultra Violet's 1988 autobiographical
book, Famous for 15 Minutes: My Years with Andy
Warhol, Famous presents a series of impressions from
the life of Isabelle Dufresne ("UltraViolet" in
Andy Warhol's Factory), in a prologue and eight scenes
that are intended to convey something of the spirit of
her development from her childhood in France through her
encounters with Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and Edie
Sedgwick in America, to her retur:n to her family, where
she has a transformative encounter with her own past and
with Isaiah.
ACT I
Prologue
Isabelle alone, seated at her desk, begins to
tell her story ..
Scene One - Moonstruck
Isabelle and Andy on the night of the Moon landing in
1969. Andy withdraws from the public event, referring to
his fear of being in public after having been shot. A
liaison between Isabelle and a Rock Star coincides with
the excitement of the crowd in Central Park at manls
ftrst step 011 the Moon.
Scene Two - Edie
A "flashback", 1965. We meet Edie
Sedgwick, the vulnerable young beauty who moves Isabelle
with her life story and asks about her encounter with
Dati. This scene segues into scene three.
Scene Three - Dali
A further "flashback" to Dali's and
Isabelle's first meeting in 1960, where they paint
together a model, Dali rendering her as a Madonna,
Isabelle as a nun in the throes of sexual passion. The
scene concludes \.vith her introduction by Dali to
Warhol. This scene segues into scene four.
Scene Four - Warhol
A surrealistic first act finale with Warhol and
his entourage in the Factory. At the scene's end, Warhol
is shot by Valerie Solanas.
ACT II
Scene Five - The Convent
A ballet depicting Isabelle's youth in a conven~ where
she witnesses a sexual encounter between the Mother
Superior and a priest disguised as a nun, and then
suffers an exorcism, with her parents standing by.
Scene Six - Home
The sitting room of Isabelle's parents' home in France,
1975. Isabelle, after the Warhol years, is at home trying
to reconcile with her mother, who is distant and
conservative.
Scene Seven - Adultery
Alone in her room at home, Isabelle confronts the way in
which her acts of adultery have harmed the wives of her
sexual partners,
Scene Eight - Isaiah
In the fmal scene, then, Isabelle experiences redemption
in an encounter with Isaiah and with the spirit of Edie
Sedgwick, the former singing of "sins as red as
scarlet being made as white as snow", the latter of
the history of the exploitation of youth. The opera ends
in a touching scene of reconciliation, at last, between
mother and daughter in the spirit of their homeland.
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