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GABRIEL'S NOTES

The opera of Askamaska was written originally in 1989. The story was born in a "friday night conversation" at a place called "The Lobster Bar", where Alex Sartini, Roberto Rigobón (el "Pollo") and myself were talking about some ideas that we wanted to use for the new songs of our band at that time, that we formed with two friends back then: Roberto Alvarado and Giober Mirabal. That band was called Askamaska.

This "brainstorming" lead us to the subject that we liked most to talk about : science fiction and fantasy stories. That's how we decided to write an original story that explained, sort of, the origin of the word Askamaska (this word was invented acidentally by Alex a couple of years before). The story should have all the mandatory items of the genre: a hero, a princess, a villain, a sorcerer/wise old man, strange caracters (fauns, gnomes, etc), and of course, countless dangerous situations that our hero must face and resolve. (at the end the good guys win).

So Alex and I decided to write a short tale, on which we will then develop the lyrics for some songs. We end up with 20 songs and two hours of music. A very important part of the songs was that they had some humor involved. (the band did a lot of funny things on stage).

The play never went public and, as a matter of fact, was never completed before the band broke up, until Alex and I sat down and re-wrote some of the songs, and recorded the complete opera in my home studio between 1992 y 1994.

Gabriel,
Caracas, August 23rd, 1997