Primero Sueño, the processional opera by Paola Prestini & Magos Herrera, to be released on VIA Records Oct 31, followed by Mexico Premiere Dec 5 & 11

Primero Sueño, the acclaimed processional opera by Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera, to have recording released on VIA Records Oct 31, followed by Mexico Premiere Performances Dec 5 & 11

The album, released ahead of the Día de los Muertos celebration, features Magos as Sor Juana, German vocal ensemble Sjaella, Celso Duarte on Paraguayan and Mexican jarocha harp and percussion, and Luca Tarantino on theorbo and Spanish guitar

The Mexican Premiere Performances include a large-scale outdoor immersive processional performance Dec 5, taking place in the Zócalo and Atrium of the Cathedral of Puebla, followed by a Dec 11 performance in the Chamber of Deputies in Mexico City

"The score mixes the devotional with almost rootsy strands, Herrera’s Sor Juana sings in an earthy mezzo that complements the heavenly harmonies of the six nuns, performed by the German vocal ensemble Sjaella"
– The New York Times

"A work of great beauty and clarity."
– The Observer

"A captivating mix of folk elements, contemporary classical music, and 18th-century baroque"
– Opera Magazine

Primero Sueño, the acclaimed processional opera written by Paola Prestini and Magos Herrera, will have its first recording released Oct 31 on VIA Records, followed by the Mexican Premiere performances Dec 5 in Puebla and Dec 11 in Mexico City. The work, which was premiered in a series of sold-out immersive performances in the Metropolitan Museum Cloisters in New York City in January 2025, is based on the poem written in 1692 by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a poet, playwright, scholar, nun, and influential 17th-century Mexican writer who is recognized as America's first published feminist.

The recording, released just ahead of the annual Día de los Muertos celebration, features Magos as Sor Juana, German vocal ensemble Sjaella, Celso Duarte on Paraguayan and Mexican jarocha harp and percussion, and Luca Tarantino on theorbo and Spanish guitar. The album was recorded at the Power Station at BerkleeNYC, engineered, edited and mixed by Alex Verguer and mastered by Oscar Zambrano.

The Dec 5 Mexican premiere will take place in Puebla, and will see the work expanded into a new large-scale, immersive processional performance. Thousands of audience members will parade alongside the opera's cast, joined by local community choirs, creating a collective meditation that will resonate throughout the city's streets and squares. The procession will culminate in the Zócalo and the Atrium of the Cathedral of Puebla, where the Bishop of Puebla had prohibited Sor Juana from continuing her creative life as a writer, arguing that women should prioritize obedience and avoid intellectual vanity.

Primero Sueño will then travel to Mexico City on Dec 11, with an intimate site-specific performance within the Chamber of Deputies in Mexico City, the important government locus that ensures the proper development of the debates, discussions, and votes of the Plenary, and guarantees that the provisions of the Constitution and the law prevail in legislative work.

The opera was conceived and developed in Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende with a team of advisors that includes Ronda Kasl (Curator of Latin American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), Alfonso Miranda (General Director of El Museo Soumaya), writers Alberto Ruy Sanchez, Sara Poot, and Monica Lavin, as well as Carmen Lopez Portillo, director of the Claustro de Sor Juana in CDMX, and Martha Delgado, among others. Primero Sueño explores themes of mysticism, feminism, and the power of the natural world through an intimate and highly symbolic text. Prestini and Herrera wrote the libretto, giving Sor Juana's words an operatic voice through a procession that traces the ascension of the soul and knowledge, illuminating history and its connection to the poem.

The original production was directed by Louisa Proske, and its adaptation for Mexico will be carried out by choreographer Jorrell Lawyer-Jefferson. Lighting design is by Jiyoun Chang, sound design by Christian Frederickson and Garth MacAleavey, projection design by Jorge Cousineau, and mask and three-dimensional sculpture design by Mexican visual artist, David Herrera.

During the performance, each singer wears a nun's shield that also functions as an acoustic speaker, light, and projection devices designed by costume, prop, and wearable technology designer Andrea Lauer, in collaboration with design technologists from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program (NYU ITP). These sonic devices will allow the audience to hear personal aspects of Sor Juana's narrative and will also serve as light beams and projection surfaces.

Primero Sueño was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MetLiveArts) and VisionIntoArt.

PRE-SAVE - PRIMERO SUEÑO

Album Tracklist

1. Piramidal
2. Nictimene
3. Hermanas
4. El Claustro
5. El Mar
6. Amable Trabajo
7. Santa Maria
8. Monan Vuchila
9. Parda Noche
10. Un Cadáver 
11. El Alma
12. Secretos
13. El Ser más Elevado
14. Pirámides
15. La Reina de lo Sublunar
16. La Naturaleza
17. El Mundo se Ilumina

Magos Herrera, Sor Juana
Sjaella, Sisters
     Viola Blache, soprano
     Franziska Eberhardt, soprano
     Marie Fenske, soprano
     Marie Charlotte Seidel, mezzo-soprano
     Felicitas Erben, alto
     Helene Erben, alto
Luca Tarantino, theorbo and Spanish guitar
Celso Duarte, harps, charango, and hand percussion
Recording Producer and editing by Paola Prestini
Recording, mixing, and editing by Alex Venguer
Mastering by Oscar Zambrano for Zampol Productions
Recorded at Power Station BerkleeNYC

This recording is made possible with support from NYFA Women's Fund, NYC Media & Entertainment (MOME), with commissioning support for VisionIntoArt provided by Jill and Bill Steinberg

Note From Composers

Primero Sueño depicts the iconic Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz's journey of self-discovery through a "fever dream," exploring her intellect and ultimate acceptance of a life-long solitary quest for knowledge. She transcends the confines of gender in the 17th century, revealing herself as an unconscious mystic who comprehends a higher consciousness beyond imagination.

Sor Juana's ethos resonates with our commitment to creating musical work that champions equity and freedom, uplifts marginalized voices, fosters community, and expands our understanding of the world. It is an honor to bring her words and poetry to life in the first operatic adaptation of Primero Sueño.

The music portrays Sor Juana's mind, reflecting 17th-century Mexico's crossroads of colonial New Spain, African slavery, and indigenous Mexican cultures. She uniquely understood this complexity and represented an emerging Mexican identity, balancing individuality with socio-political realities. Our score blends baroque, improv, folk, classical choral, jazz, and electronic traditions.

To further contemporize Sor Juana's legacy, we've incorporated emergent technology, reimagining "escudos" (nun badges) as expressive tools. Historically, these badges protected the heart and communicated identity; now, they serve as amplifiers, light sources, and projection sources, symbolizing the liberation of voice and soul. The quest for freedom of mind, body, and soul continues today amidst modern political and social realities. Women's autonomy and intellect are still undervalued, and equity for marginalized communities remains a persistent struggle.

Sor Juana was a universal mind, far ahead of her time. Through this opera, her dream lives on—an artistic exploration of her intellect, spirit, and enduring relevance.

–Paola Prestini & Magos Herrera

Praise for Primero Sueño

"The score mixes the devotional with almost rootsy strands, Herrera’s Sor Juana sings in an earthy mezzo that complements the heavenly harmonies of the six nuns, performed by the German vocal ensemble Sjaella"
The New York Times

?"Primero sueño reflects the transformative power of music."
Opera World

"Exciting and revolutionary."
Opera Wire

?"A work of great beauty and clarity."
The Observer

"Stunning."
I Care if You Listen

?"A captivating mix of folk elements, contemporary classical music, and 18th-century baroque, combined with improvised passages, humming, jazz harmonic structures, and live electronics."
Opera Magazine

About Paola Prestini

Composer Paola Prestini has cultivated a uniquely expansive and humanistic musical voice, through pieces that transcend genre and discipline, and projects whose global impact reverberates beyond the walls of the concert hall. Far more than just notes on a page, Prestini's works give voice to those whom society has silenced, and offer a platform for the causes that are most vital to us all. Prestini has been named one of the Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music by The Washington Post, one of the top 100 Composers in the World by National Public Radio, and one of the Top 30 Professionals of the Year by Musical America. As Co-Founder of National Sawdust, she has collaborated with luminaries like poet Robin Coste Lewis, visual artists Julie Mehretu and Nick Cave, and musical legends David Byrne, Philip Glass and Renée Fleming, and her works have been performed throughout the world with leading institutions like the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Dallas Opera, London's Barbican Center, Mexico's Bellas Artes, and many more.

Prestini's 2025-26 season includes a site-specific production of her multidisciplinary work Houses of Zodiac in the Catacombs of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery in a performance featuring Jeffrey Zeigler (formerly of the Kronos Quartet) on solo cello, and dancers Georgina Pazcoguin (former New York City Ballet soloist) and Dai Matsuoka (Butoh dance master of Sankai Juku), with poetry reading by the visionary Maria Popova. The season will also include the Mexico premiere and album release of her acclaimed processional opera Primero Sueño, which The New York Times praised, saying: "Just as the score mixes the devotional with almost rootsy strands, Herrera’s Sor Juana sings in an earthy mezzo that complements the heavenly harmonies of the six nuns in white, performed by the German vocal ensemble Sjaella." Her celebrated operatic re-imagining of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea will be performed at the Wexner Center for the Arts in a co-production by Opera Columbus and Beth Morrision Projects. She will also have two symphonic world premieres: a co-commission by the Tucson Symphony and a commission by the The Juilliard School, as well as a performance by Awadagin Pratt and the Dayton Philharmonic of her piano concerto Code, which NPR hailed as "uncanny...a rapturous confluence of strings, voices and Pratt's piano."

Prestini has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking work. In 2025 alone, she received the inaugural Doris Duke Performing Arts Technologies Lab Award, the Composers Now Visionary Award and a Creative Capital Award. Prestini has been awarded substantial support from the Mellon and Ford Foundations, named as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and a Sundance Institute Film Music Program Fellow, and has been composer-in-residence at the Park Avenue Armory, MASS MoCA, and the American Academy of Rome. Prestini is also the co-founder of VisionIntoArt, a non-profit new music and interdisciplinary arts production company in New York City that incubates deep process interdisciplinary and impact works. She attended the Peabody School of Music and is a graduate of the Juilliard School, and she resides in Brooklyn with her husband, the acclaimed cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and their son Tommaso Mareo Zeigler.

About Magos Herrera

Born in Mexico City and currently based in New York City, Magos Herrera is a dazzling Jazz singer, songwriter, producer, and educator. Declared as "One of the greatest contemporary interpreters of song" by The Latin Jazz Network. With a captivating voice and an unprecedented presence on the contemporary international scene, Magos is known for her unique style that encompasses elements of contemporary jazz and chamber music with Ibero-American melodies and rhythms, elegantly crossing borders.

"Magos gets under the skin of the song, reminding us of great singers like Edith Piaf or Billie Holiday" is how NPR describes Herrera's talent, who has recorded 9 albums including collaborations with producer Javier Limón, in addition to having participated as a guest artist on several recordings and albums. An accomplished artist, Magos has performed in major international cultural venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Kennedy Center in DC, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Union Chapel in London, Palau de la Musica in Valencia, and has been part of the most memorable jazz festivals, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival, to name a few. Included as "One of the most creative Mexicans in the world" by Forbes Magazine, throughout her career she has garnered important awards and recognitions, including a Grammy® nomination in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category for her album Distancia (2009), and received the Master of Latin Music award from Berklee College of Music. She serves as a spokesperson for UN Women for UNiTE to End Violence against Women and He For She, promoting gender equality.

In 2018, Magos released her album Dreamers (Sony Music) in collaboration with Brooklyn Rider. "Dreamers is not only a work of art by artists of the highest caliber to achieve music with a purpose, but it is also a labor of love," wrote Sounds and Colors about this acclaimed album that quickly entered the Top charts of The New York Times, Billboard Classic, NPR Music, among others, and was nominated for a Grammy® for Best Arrangement with the song "Niña."

Created and recorded remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic and in collaboration with composer Paola Prestini, in Dec 2020 Herrera released her tenth album "Con Alma" (National Sawdust Tracks), exploring the theme of how to find a sense of communion in a time of isolation. With more than 30 musicians around the world including Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, Jeffrey Zeigler, Kinan Azmeh, Romero Lubambo, Gonzalo Grau, Vinicius Gomes, Diego Schissi, Ensemble Sjaella, The Young People's Chorus of New York City, this artifact of our time was presented as a virtual digital experience for thousands of spectators and several live concerts including a historic concert at the United Nations Headquarters during the Commission on the Status of Women CSW67 conference. This project culminated in a documentary directed by Pedro Gonzalez Rubio and Marta Ferrer that will be presented at the Mexico Now Festival in New York in November 2025.

Herrera, of whom NPR writes "Magos is expanding the very notion of jazz singing, transcending clichés and moving towards a sound that is bold, exciting, and global" received the 2020 Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works Award, is currently an academic at the renowned The New School in New York, and is a winner of the South Arts Jazz Roads Creative Residencies and Cafe Royal Foundation awards for musical creation. In May 2023, she released her most recent album "Aire" (Sunnyside records), a celebration of humanity and the healing power of music with the participation of The Knights orchestra, the Magos Herrera trio, and special guests Brazilian singer-songwriter Dori Caymmi and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, presented by Carnegie Hall Citywide Concerts in New York.

Commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and VisionIntoArt, in January 2025 she presented the premiere of her first opera written in collaboration with Paola Prestini on "Primero sueño" by the iconic Mexican writer, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, at the Cloisters of the MET in New York.

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