In January 2025, Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera premiered their immersive co-composed opera Primero Sueño at the Met Cloisters, with preview features in The New York Times, Spectrum NY1 News, El Diario NY, El Financiero,El Universal, The Cusp Magazine, Aristegui Noticias, Woman Around Town, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Website.
The work's premiere received rave reviews from critics:
"Primero Sueño is a deeply satisfying blend of styles, one that nevertheless tends toward the gentle, the mystical and the joyous... a work of great beauty and clarity... this rich, meditative opera succeeds where other operatic treatments of Sor Juana do not, in part because it eschews strict biography in favor of poetry… Future collaborations between these fully-fledged artists should be swiftly funded"
-Observer
““Primero Sueño’s” intimate approach in telling Sor Juana’s story through the perspective of Prestini, Herrera, and Proske unlocked the intuitive power behind every word, gesture, and articulation of emotion thought possible. This work is everything dreamed and imagined, produced and performed with utmost care, consciousness and soul. “Primero Sueño” lights the way forward for all.”
-Opera Wire
“Revolutionary… “Primero Sueño’s” artistic combination of technology and costume design embodied the performers and carried into the audience as part of this body, not as a separate entity. This was a whole, heartfelt design that took lots of risks and inspired one to consider new ways for technology to be present in opera productions.”
-Opera Wire
“It was timeless and otherworldly and, somehow, boldly, a product of New York City.” ★★★★☆
-Bachtrack
"The score is wildly eclectic, incorporating baroque pastiche, Latin rhythms, electronica, and folk song. A dirge, underscoring one of the processions, proved so potent that the audience fell into funeral march step. The Cloisters' spaces established the churchly milieu while supplying a hushed magic of their own."
-Musical America
"Modern and magical... Imitating Sor Juana’s complex mind, Prestini’s orchestration weaves folk, jazz, classical choral, and subtle electronic music into a rich and cohesive accompaniment that wafted through the Cloisters... a stupendous performance"
-I Care If You Listen
“’Primero Sueño”’ reflects the vitality of contemporary music and the performing arts, and is a declaration of principles: the artistic relevance of Sor Juana, the fusion of the ancestral with the technological, and the transformative power of music when experienced so closely. In New York, between Gothic walls and Romanesque arches, the dream of Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera was joined with that of Sor Juana, in a premiere that will be remembered with great pleasure.”
-Opera World
“Throughout, the music was exquisitely wrought. Prestini and Herrera’s sublime score is a subtle and hypnotic blend of sacred monastical music.”
-Interludes
“[the] breathtaking production is a beautiful mix of late-Medieval, Indigenous, contemporary, and Latin folk sounds, with touches of jazz and more... The music alternately hypnotizes and electrifies.”
-Blogcritics
In January 2025, Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera premiered their immersive co-composed opera Primero Sueño at the Met Cloisters, with preview features in The New York Times, Spectrum NY1 News, El Diario NY, El Financiero,El Universal, The Cusp Magazine, Aristegui Noticias, Woman Around Town, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Website.
The work's premiere received rave reviews from critics:
"Primero Sueño is a deeply satisfying blend of styles, one that nevertheless tends toward the gentle, the mystical and the joyous... a work of great beauty and clarity... this rich, meditative opera succeeds where other operatic treatments of Sor Juana do not, in part because it eschews strict biography in favor of poetry… Future collaborations between these fully-fledged artists should be swiftly funded"
-Observer
““Primero Sueño’s” intimate approach in telling Sor Juana’s story through the perspective of Prestini, Herrera, and Proske unlocked the intuitive power behind every word, gesture, and articulation of emotion thought possible. This work is everything dreamed and imagined, produced and performed with utmost care, consciousness and soul. “Primero Sueño” lights the way forward for all.”
-Opera Wire
“Revolutionary… “Primero Sueño’s” artistic combination of technology and costume design embodied the performers and carried into the audience as part of this body, not as a separate entity. This was a whole, heartfelt design that took lots of risks and inspired one to consider new ways for technology to be present in opera productions.”
-Opera Wire
“It was timeless and otherworldly and, somehow, boldly, a product of New York City.” ★★★★☆
-Bachtrack
"The score is wildly eclectic, incorporating baroque pastiche, Latin rhythms, electronica, and folk song. A dirge, underscoring one of the processions, proved so potent that the audience fell into funeral march step. The Cloisters' spaces established the churchly milieu while supplying a hushed magic of their own."
-Musical America
"Modern and magical... Imitating Sor Juana’s complex mind, Prestini’s orchestration weaves folk, jazz, classical choral, and subtle electronic music into a rich and cohesive accompaniment that wafted through the Cloisters... a stupendous performance"
-I Care If You Listen
“’Primero Sueño”’ reflects the vitality of contemporary music and the performing arts, and is a declaration of principles: the artistic relevance of Sor Juana, the fusion of the ancestral with the technological, and the transformative power of music when experienced so closely. In New York, between Gothic walls and Romanesque arches, the dream of Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera was joined with that of Sor Juana, in a premiere that will be remembered with great pleasure.”
-Opera World
“Throughout, the music was exquisitely wrought. Prestini and Herrera’s sublime score is a subtle and hypnotic blend of sacred monastical music.”
-Interludes
“[the] breathtaking production is a beautiful mix of late-Medieval, Indigenous, contemporary, and Latin folk sounds, with touches of jazz and more... The music alternately hypnotizes and electrifies.”
-Blogcritics
In January 2025, Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera premiered their immersive co-composed opera Primero Sueño at the Met Cloisters, with preview features in The New York Times, Spectrum NY1 News, El Diario NY, El Financiero,El Universal, The Cusp Magazine, Aristegui Noticias, Woman Around Town, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Website.
The work's premiere received rave reviews from critics:
"Primero Sueño is a deeply satisfying blend of styles, one that nevertheless tends toward the gentle, the mystical and the joyous... a work of great beauty and clarity... this rich, meditative opera succeeds where other operatic treatments of Sor Juana do not, in part because it eschews strict biography in favor of poetry… Future collaborations between these fully-fledged artists should be swiftly funded"
-Observer
““Primero Sueño’s” intimate approach in telling Sor Juana’s story through the perspective of Prestini, Herrera, and Proske unlocked the intuitive power behind every word, gesture, and articulation of emotion thought possible. This work is everything dreamed and imagined, produced and performed with utmost care, consciousness and soul. “Primero Sueño” lights the way forward for all.”
-Opera Wire
“Revolutionary… “Primero Sueño’s” artistic combination of technology and costume design embodied the performers and carried into the audience as part of this body, not as a separate entity. This was a whole, heartfelt design that took lots of risks and inspired one to consider new ways for technology to be present in opera productions.”
-Opera Wire
“It was timeless and otherworldly and, somehow, boldly, a product of New York City.” ★★★★☆
-Bachtrack
"The score is wildly eclectic, incorporating baroque pastiche, Latin rhythms, electronica, and folk song. A dirge, underscoring one of the processions, proved so potent that the audience fell into funeral march step. The Cloisters' spaces established the churchly milieu while supplying a hushed magic of their own."
-Musical America
"Modern and magical... Imitating Sor Juana’s complex mind, Prestini’s orchestration weaves folk, jazz, classical choral, and subtle electronic music into a rich and cohesive accompaniment that wafted through the Cloisters... a stupendous performance"
-I Care If You Listen
“’Primero Sueño”’ reflects the vitality of contemporary music and the performing arts, and is a declaration of principles: the artistic relevance of Sor Juana, the fusion of the ancestral with the technological, and the transformative power of music when experienced so closely. In New York, between Gothic walls and Romanesque arches, the dream of Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera was joined with that of Sor Juana, in a premiere that will be remembered with great pleasure.”
-Opera World
“Throughout, the music was exquisitely wrought. Prestini and Herrera’s sublime score is a subtle and hypnotic blend of sacred monastical music.”
-Interludes
“[the] breathtaking production is a beautiful mix of late-Medieval, Indigenous, contemporary, and Latin folk sounds, with touches of jazz and more... The music alternately hypnotizes and electrifies.”
-Blogcritics
