Above: Paola Prestini and Margos Herrera
~ Author: LiIi Tobias
Friday, January 24th, 2025 – My evening began with a pilgrimage to the Met Cloisters to attend the world premiere of Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera’s opera Primero Sueño. After traveling for an hour and a half on the subway from Queens up to Washington Heights, I then trekked uphill along a perilously icy pathway into Fort Tryon Park. As I neared the museum, the stone towers emerged majestically above the bare treetops in the night sky. I had never been to the Cloisters at night, not to mention in the Winter either, and it was certainly an experience unlike any of my daytime, Summer excursions. But it was pleasantly warm inside, though dimly lit which created an air of mystery for the music to come….
As the audience mingled in the entry room, we were greeted by a group of ghostly singers, draped in translucent white veils. These were the sjaella (sisters) – the nuns living in Sor Juana’s convent. The sisters sang on a sustained “ah,” the tones drifting to and fro, wavering gently between consonance and dissonance. They then beckoned us to walk up the stairs where they had first appeared and into the adjacent room, which bordered a candle-filled colonnade encircling a dark garden.
As a “procession opera,” this production gave prominence to the spatial aspect of sound. As we walked into this first room, the singing of the nuns faded as it was gradually overtaken by the gentle plucking of a harp and theorbo. Later in the opera too, we were separated into two groups and led by the nuns around the circumference of the colonnade, while they performed a processional chant. Their voices, singing the refrain “Santa Maria,” reverberated through the corridors and around the corners of the space, and their shadows were projected on the stone walls as they walked. I imagine it must have been an entirely different experience for almost every audience member, just based on where they were standing within the group!
Production photo by Jill Steinberg
Movement and dance were both incredible forces of expression in this performance—just as important as the music. In the second room that the singers and musicians traveled to, Sor Juana (performed by co-composer and librettist, Magos Herrera), lead the other nuns in song and dance as she worked on writing her poem, “Primero Sueño.” The rhythmic nature, expressed through both the music and dance, created an exuberant atmosphere as the women worked together helping Sor Juana write.
However, their happiness and safety was suddenly challenged by the appearance of the god Morpheus (danced by Jorrell Lawyer-Jefferson), who struck fear in the nuns. He didn’t sing, but his unsettling movements, accompanied by a distorted recording, came across as otherworldly and dangerous. Lawyer-Jefferson appeared later in the opera as well, both as Quetzalcoatl and Phaeton – both much more positive and comforting mythical figures compared to Morpheus. The abundance of mythical figures in this opera was really interesting, given that Sor Juana and the sisters are nuns, so Christian figures such as Mary coexisted with the indigenous deity Quetzalcoatl, as well as with the Greek Nyctimene, Morpheus, and Phaeton.
Production photo by Jill Steinberg
The juxtaposition of multiple very different religious and cultural traditions was just one of many intriguing juxtapositions in this production. The opera also created a space where music from many different traditions—classical choral, jazz, electronic, folk, etc.—could exist at the same time. While much of the time, the music felt extremely mystical and otherworldly, there were also many sudden shifts back to the mundane. Back in the first room, the sisters broke into song as they complete their daily tasks, such as sewing and gardening. Their simple call and response, accompanied by recorded birdsong, grounded the scene in the present world, rather than the mystical realm Sor Juana was inhabiting just a few moments before. The final number, when Sor Juana has ultimately returned to her poem is also a joyous return to the real world after her encounter with Phaeton in the cosmos. The music here has a folk-like feel, as Sor Juana recites the verses to the audience, performing her words like telling a story.
Production photo by Jill Steinberg
I was constantly captivated, surprised, and inspired by every aspect of Primero Sueño. The production worked so well in the Cloisters, and I hope that it can be performed there again, or even in another similarly gorgeous location. At the end of the production, all the performers, joined by Paola Prestini and who I believe was Louisa Prouske, the director, were celebrated with raucous applause and (literally!) danced their way out of the final room.
~ Lili Tobias
Oberon's Glade 