In a modern retelling of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a woman (soprano Julia Dawson) is cloistered in a prison of her own making until a mysterious stranger shows her a way out. Featuring Mozart’s “Exsultate, Jubilate” (KV 165) and new music by Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi with original Latin text, Obscura Nox is a combination of classical music and narrative film. Director Mary Birnbaum’s 26-minute “création lyrique” explores themes of isolation, the relationship between perception and reality, and society’s morphine-drip addiction to our screens.
Set in a nightmarish Bardo, a place between death and rebirth, a tormented writer faces down demons of his own making. Forced to confront the darkest moment in his life, he mines fractured and repressed memories for a way out. A woman is at the center of all the writer’s afterlife encounters. She...
With the help of a failed Broadway actress (soprano Janet Szepei Todd), a wide-eyed Amish teen (tenor Jon Lee Keenan) sings his way to adulthood on his Rumspringa through New York City.
A multimedia, immersive short film on the transformation of memory and the mutability of familial relationships, created in collaboration with painter Natalie Frank, artist/animator Erin Pollock, with original story and concept by Eve Gigliotti and Paola Prestini. With music composed by Paola Pre...
