Gabriel’s Guide to the 48 States Gabriel Kahane

For Mr. Kahane, allowing the 1930s to speak for itself involved reading the guides and transcribing intriguing passages into a massive document, which he condensed and edited into a libretto. “Gabriel’s Guide” journeys from California to New York, describing along the way the working class in San Francisco; the slave trade in Washington, D.C.; and the beauty of Oregon. While Orpheus plays his score, Mr. Kahane will sing and recite excerpts from the guides, accompanying himself on banjo and electric guitar. The piece is a travelogue geographically and historically, moving fluidly from the early explorers to the striking farm workers of the Depression, tieing mythic past to political reality in the same manner as the original American Guides.