(Photos: Jill Steinberg) Paola Prestini (composer, librettist and orchestrator), Magos Herrera (composer, librettist and Sor Juana), and Louisa Proske (director) transformed the Met Cloisters for their world premiere processional opera, “Primero Sueño,” for a sold out audience on January 26th, 2025. OperaWire’s initial introduction to a collaboration piece by Prestini and Herrera, “Con Alma,” made this premiere feel extra exciting {…}
(Photo credit: Jill Steinberg at National Sawdust) National Sawdust’s 10th Anniversary opening season kicked off with Artistic Director/Co-Founder & composer Paola Prestini and librettist Royce Vavrek‘s foley chamber opera world premiere “Silent Light,” featuring director & scenic designer Thaddeus Strassberger and conductor Christopher Rountree. The cast includes powerhouse soprano Brittany Renee as Esther, bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch as Johan, soprano Julia {…}
(Credit: Caroline Tompkins) Omaha’s Common Senses Festival in a co-production by VisionIntoArt and Beth Morrison Projects will present the world premiere of Paola Prestini and Brenda Shaughnessy’s “Sensorium Ex.” The world premiere of the opera, which features predominantly disabled performers and explores the question of what it means to have a voice, is set to take place May 22-25, 2025, {…}
(Photo credit: Stephanie Sedlebauer) National Sawdust, the women-led, Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based non-profit has released the details of its 10th anniversary season. For the purposes of this article, only classical vocal works are included. Co-founder and artistic director Paola Prestini, and Royce Vavrek’s opera “Silent Light,” which is based on the 2007 film by Carlos Reygadas, opens the season. Performance Date: September {…}
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and VisionIntoArt have announced that they will produce Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera’s “Primero Sueño” in 2025. The work is an adaptation of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’ iconic poem of the same name. “Primero Sueño” was first published in 1692 and “tracks Sor Juana’s mind as it aggregates knowledge, following the soul as {…}
National Sawdust is set to present the world premiere of “Silent Light” this September. The opera by Paola Prestini and Royce Vavrek is an adaptation of Carlos Reygada’s film of the same name. Per the official summary, “The opera follows a pious husband and father whose strongly held spiritual obligation to his wife, their family, and community is put to {…}
(Photo: Jill Steinberg) “Sensorium Ex” is an opera by composer Paola Prestini and librettist/poet Brenda Shaughnessy and co-directed by choreographer Jerron Herman. It is a multi-sensory narrative woven together at the intersections of disability and artificial intelligence. “Sensorium Ex” opera will be premiering at the Common Senses Festival in Omaha for their 2025 season, and is commissioned by the Ford {…}
(Photo: Jill Steinberg) National Sawdust and The Met Opera presented “Opera Evolved: Genre Fluidity” on Thursday, February 22nd, 2024. This was the second installment of this three-part series that, according to the program, celebrates artistic convergence by investigating the intersection of innovation and tradition at National Sawdust. The evening included composer and co-founder of National Sawdust, Paola Prestini, and theater {…}
The Metropolitan Opera is joining forces with National Sawdust to co-present a concert centered on excerpts from Paola Prestini’s upcoming opera “Sensorium Ex.” The event, which is part of the “Opera Evolved” series, features such artists as J’Nai Bridges, Hailey McAvoy, stage director Lileana Blain-Cruz, and Brenda Shaughnessy (librettist of “Sensorium Ex”), as they alternate between performance and discussion. Prestini {…}
(Photo Credit: Kevin Condon) Death of Classical (DOC) and The Alexander S. Onassis Benefit Foundation presented “Waiting for the Barbarians,” a one-night-only concert part of “Archive of Desire: A Festival Inspired by the Poet C.P. Cavafy” curated by prolific composer Paola Prestini and under the creative direction of Afroditi Panagiotakou. This extraordinary gathering took place on May 2nd, 2023 at {…}
Photo: Unison Media “Con Alma” was performed at the United Nations Headquarters in NYC’s Trusteeship Chamber on March 14th, 2023. This once-in-a-lifetime experience, presented by VisionIntoArt, and Death of Classical, in partnership with Carnegie Hall, showcased the album “Con Alma” by composer Paola Prestini and Mexican singer and composer Magos Herrera. Performers from the Young People’s Chorus of NYC, led by Artistic {…}