Events

Paola Prestini’s KAOS draws inspiration from Luigi Pirandello’s Sicilian tales to craft a 15-minute orchestral triptych for the orchestras of Milan and Torino. Moving through three distinct movements—The Jar, Moon Sickness, and Requiem—the work captures the "internal geography" of Sicily caught between ancient folklore and the burgeoning social unrest of the early 20th century. The work transcends its specific geographical roots to serve as a metaphor for global cycles of inequality and the struggle for dignity.

Paola Prestini’s KAOS draws inspiration from Luigi Pirandello’s Sicilian tales to craft a 15-minute orchestral triptych for the orchestras of Milan and Torino. Moving through three distinct movements—The Jar, Moon Sickness, and Requiem—the work captures the "internal geography" of Sicily caught between ancient folklore and the burgeoning social unrest of the early 20th century. The work transcends its specific geographical roots to serve as a metaphor for global cycles of inequality and the struggle for dignity.

Paola Prestini will give a masterclass as part of Brown's flagship lecture series entitled the Colloquia Series. The event will provide a deep dive into her creative process, composition techniques, and multi-disciplinary artistic collaborations, as well as guidance for the next generation of Composers studying at Brown.‍

In collaboration with her long time friend and Collaborator Maria Popova, Paola will return to work with the Young People’s Chorus of NYC to honor The Marginalian’s 20th year anniversary with a world premiere piece for the youth choir.

makemake debuts this year as National Sawdust’s annual festival inviting artists toimagine futures - making, remixing, rethinking. As a part of the festival’s debut, PaolaPrestini’s explosive and industry shaping opera, Sensorium Ex, takes center stage.Sensorium Ex imagines a future where artificial intelligence becomes a tool for agencyrather than control, blurring the boundaries between human expression and machinepossibility. Part dystopian opera, part technological breakthrough, it asks who gets todefine what a voice - and a person - can be.

Inspired by the verses of Pablo Neruda, Brenda Shaughnessy, Natasha Trethewey and Anaïs Nin, Houses of Zodiac, A Refracted Anthology weaves music, word, dance, and image into a cinematic experience with live music. Former Kronos Quartet member Jeffrey Zeigler performs the music of Paola Prestini, to which New York City Ballet soloist “Rogue Ballerina” Georgina Pazcoguin and Butoh dancer and Sankai Juku member Dai Matsuoka bring their own choreographies by film..

A behind-the-scenes look co-presented with Opera Wire into the Prototype festival and Paola Prestini’s operatic re-imagining of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

Based on the Ernest Hemingway 1952 novella, this innovative adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea is the result of a collaboration between Paola Prestini, librettist Royce Vavrek, and conductor and stage director Karmina Šilec. Breathtakingly staged with eight pools of water enhanced with dynamic lighting, costumes, and sound, the performance combines the Hemingway text with original portraits of everyday life to create a look at aging, legacy, and our relationship to the ocean. This work will be the key piece of the festival.

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay' is an orchestral ode inspired by Elena Ferrante'sacclaimed novel that directly responds to the vivid and intense world she created. Thisworld felt inherently musical and presented an irresistible challenge to bring to theorchestral stage. The piece captures the intricate and mysterious entanglement of Lenùand Lila's lives, from their childhood in a brutal Neapolitan neighborhood to the cusp ofLila's wedding.

A Midwest performance of Prestini's orchestral work rooted in Ferrante's literary world.

Staged in Mexico City, the processional opera Primero Sueño combines music, dance,technology, lighting design, and more to bring to life the mythical poem of Sor Juana Inésde la Cruz. Cruz, a 17th-century poet, scholar, and nun from Mexico, and one of the mostenduring and influential writers of her era, is also recognized as one of the first feministsof Latin America. The work has been co-created by Paola Prestini, Magos Herrera andLouisa Proske.

A meditation on fading civilizations, Oceanic Verses is an operatic exploration of thecomplex ethnic mosaic that has shaped parts of Prestini’s own cultural heritage. Theopera is led by a scholar/narrator, played by Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, whoseinvestigation into the ‘artifacts of song’ carries her into a collision of the past and present.Past, present and future crash onto the ancient coast of the Mediterranean Sea offering apromise and a dare to those willing to cross the oceans to reach it. Folksinger ClaudioPrima joins the choir of Trinity Wall Street.

A brand new work created for the architecture and landscape of Grace Farms, featuring cellist Arlen Hlusko and vocalist Elizabeth Joy.

The West Coast premiere of the acclaimed operatic adaptation of the Hemingway classicin collaboration with the Los Angeles Opera

An interdisciplinary world-premiere opera project developed alongside a powerhousecreative team including playwright Winter Miller and composer/performer Sxip Shireybased on the award winning play about two imprisoned journalists, No One is Forgotten.

Expanding on her previous work with Elena Ferrante’s writing, Paola Prestini brings tolife a full-scale operatic adaptation of Ferrante’s celebrated novel My Brilliant Friend, featuring a libretto by Royce Vavrek.

A major new operatic work by Paola Prestini, with a libretto by Robin Coste Lewis & incollaboration with Ava DuVernay, the work is an opera and cinematic powerhousecentered on Denmark Vesey, a freedom fighter executed for planning the largest slaverevolt in American history. The project fuses historical narrative, visual storytelling, andmusic to explore one of the most important yet least known moments in Americanhistory.