Primero Sueno at the Metropolitan Museum Cloisters in New York City | PHOTO: Jill Steinberg
Last week saw the world premiere of composer Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera’s’s Primero Sueño at the Metropolitan Museum Cloisters. It’s a wild immersive processional piece based on a poem by the Hispanic 17th century writer and proto-feminist nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. It features Herrera as Sor Juana, Leipzig-based vocal ensemble Sjaella and a team of virtuoso multi-instrumentalists, directed by Louisa Proke.
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Primero Sueño explores themes of mysticism, feminism and the power of the natural world at large and involves the various sacred spaces of The Met Cloisters. Each of the Museum’s cloisters and chapels is mapped to the ascension of the soul and knowledge, illuminating the history of each space and its connection to the poem.
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Herrera, herself, plays Sor Juana and the instrumentation includes Paraguayan and Mexican jarocho harp, theorbo and Spanish guitar.
During the performance, each singer wore a bespoke escudo de monja (a nun’s badge) that doubled as acoustic speaker, light and projection devices. These sonic devices allowed the audience to hear personal aspects of Sor Juana’s narrative and also served as beams of light and projection surfaces.
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Primero Sueño was commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Live Arts and VisionIntoArt.
In this video, members of the audience give their verdict on the show.