James Ilgenfritz has commissioned JG Thirlwell to compose a composition for an opera with the text based on William S. Burroughs cut ups of Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess. The piece will form part of a larger opera entitled The Travel Agency is on Fire, drawn from a book of Burroughs cut-up experiments, where he re-appropriates everyone from William Shakespeare and Arthur Rimbaud to William Wordsworth and James Joyce. The other composers contributing to the opera include Jason Cady, Natacha Diels, Anne Guthrie, James Ilgenfritz, Travis Just, Lukas Ligeti, Charlie Looker, Elliott Sharp, Aaron Siegel and Katie Young.  

The opera will premiere on October 16 2015 at John Zorn‘s club The Stone in NYC as part of James Ilgenfrtiz’s residency. It will be performed by the Anagram Ensemble, consisting of  Megan Schubert, Amirtha Kidambi, Nick Hallett and  Michael Douglas Jones (voices) PK Harris and Sarah Bernstein (violins), James Moore (guitar), Jonathan Singer (percussion), Brian Chase (drums), James Ilgenfritz (basses) and Nathan Koci (conductor)