Magdalene

Prototype Festival, NYC

Magdalene is a chamber opera in thirteen movements: a wild meditation on transformation and desire scored by the collective voice of thirteen women. Set to Marie Howe’s Magdalene poems, the opera invites an audience into the interior world of Magdalene, a woman alive now who strives to heal the unyielding split between the sacred and the sexual. Encountering her life in flashes - wandering through a hotel, lighting birthday candles, making love in the ocean -- Magdalene finds transcendence in the mundane to finally become the subject of her own story. 

Created | Danielle Birrittella & Zoe Aja Moore

Music | Leila Adu, Ruby Kato Attwood, Danielle Birrittella, Christina Courtin, Gabrielle Herbst, Molly Joyce, Emma O'Halloran, Tanner Porter, Kamala Sankaram, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, Annika Socolofsky, Gyda Valtýsdóttir, Sheena Wenger, with additional music by Ellen Reid

Poetry | Marie Howe

Directed | Zoe Aja Moore

Featuring Danielle Birrittella & Ariana Daub

Music direction | Mila Henry & Marc Lowenstein

Video Design | Emilie Sabath & Keith Skretch

Scenic Design | Hana S. Kim

Lighting Design | Christopher Kuhl

Cinematography | Emilie Sabath & Chris Lael Larsen 

Produced by PROTOTYPE and Beth Morrison Projects 

Magdalene is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature

“Persuasive and powerful” -- NY Times 

"A breath of pure creative power." - Opera Wire

"Ms. Moore’s staging hypnotically tied the piece together" - Wall St. Journal 

“Magdalene is a stunning, powerful show, one of the more moving artistic experiences I’ve had in recent memory.”– The Theater Times 

“A work of immense, mythic joy and pain wrapped in the details of the ordinary….a hopeful vision for what opera can be and do in the twenty-first century...a work of singular power, beauty, and relevance” - Parterre Box 

PHOTO CREDIT: Maria Baranova