Chimayó figures prominently in Now Eleanor's Idea, an opera by Robert Ashley.

** Now Eleanor's Idea ( 1993 )

The operas of Perfect Lives, Atalanta, and Now Eleanor's Idea comprise a trilogy that maintains a pulse of 72 beats per minute throughout ( except for the opera Foreign Experiences within the Now Eleanor's Idea tetralogy, which is set to a quarter note = 90 ).

The first section of the opera " Now Eleanor's Idea ", entitled Improvement, features a retelling of these events.

Now Eleanor's Idea is an opera tetralogy, part of the larger trilogy described above, based on the idea of heading westward in America, eventually arriving at the Pacific Ocean.

The flow from Perfect Lives leads to Now Eleanor's Idea ( the opera, not the tetralogy ), focusing on Eleanor and her journey from Midwestern-small-town bank teller to television news reporter to prophet for the Southwestern Hispanic low rider car culture.

Recordings of the operas have been released gradually, first with Improvement in 1992, followed by el / Aficionado in 1994, Foreign Experiences in 2006, and Now Eleanor's Idea in 2007.

Now Eleanor's Idea is about the journey beyond the familiar to the West Coast, presumably the end of the world, i. e. a certain civilization was established when European adventurers found themselves in California and figured they would likely never make it home.

Ashley has also described the Now Eleanor's Idea tetralogy as cataloging four American varieties of religion: Judaism in Improvement, Pentecostal Evangelism in Foreign Experiences, " corporate mysticism " in el / Aficionado, and Roman Catholicism as derived from Spain in Now Eleanor's Idea.

* Robert Ashley's Perfect Lives, Atalanta, and Now Eleanor's Idea form a trilogy.

He is best known for his works A Long Day ’ s Dying ( his first work, published in 1950 ); The Book of Bebb, a tetralogy based on the character Leo Bebb published in 1979 ; Godric, a first person narrative of the life of the medieval saint, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 ; Brendan, a second novel narrating a saint ’ s life, published in 1987 ; Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner ( 1992 ); and his autobiographical works The Sacred Journey ( 1982 ), Now and Then ( 1983 ), Telling Secrets ( 1991 ), and The Eyes of the Heart: Memoirs of the Lost and Found ( 1999 ).