PAOLA PRESTINI
ROYCE VAVREK
KARMINA ŠILEC
MILA HENRY
DORIAN ŠILEC
JEFFREY ZEIGLER
SHAYNA DUNKELMAN
VISIONINTOART
SARAH CHIESA
SIDRA BELL
PAOLA PRESTINI
ROYCE VAVREK
KARMINA ŠILEC
MILA HENRY
Starring: Nathan Gunn (u/s Armando Contreras), Measha Brueggergosman, Rodolfo Girón, Yvette Keong
Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea is an opera by Paola Prestini, Royce Vavrek and Karmina Šilec that presents a dual track of storytelling by combining the Hemingway text with original portraits of quotidian life to create a look at aging, legacy, and our relationship to oceans. The work includes longtime collaborators/muses of Prestini’s including Jeffrey Zeigler as the featured cellist. The cast includes a choir, and brings to life the seminal characters: Santiago, Manolin, and the wife, recast as La Virgen del Cobre, a goddess in Santería, the Afro-Caribbean faith, who was found floating on a wooden board off the coast of eastern Cuba in 1628. Themes of baseball, ecology, religion, and economy paint a conflict between progress and tradition, craft passion and exploitation, ultimately shedding contemporary perspectives on this timeless tale.
Produced by Beth Morrison Projects in association with ASU Gammage and VisionIntoArt. Developed by Beth Morrison Projects and VisionIntoArt. Developmental residencies for The Old Man and the Sea provided by ASU Gammage and MASS MoCA. Lead commissioning support for The Old Man and the Sea was provided by ASU Gammage in association with Joan Cremin. Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, VisionIntoArt, and Jill & Bill Steinberg.
The commissioning of Paola Prestini for The Old Man and the Sea received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers program supported by Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Additional support provided by New York State Council on the Arts with the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Katie Adams Schaeffer, and Helen Little.
"An unstoppable force" (Praise for Paola Prestini)
"An exemplary creator of operatic prose" (Praise for Royce Vavrek)
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