An innovative reimagining of Hemingway's beloved classic into a contemporary operatic masterpiece—complete with water on stage.
Based on the Ernest Hemingway 1952 novella, this innovative adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea is the result of a collaboration between illustrious composer Paola Prestini, librettist Royce Vavrek, and conductor and stage director Karmina Šilec. Breathtakingly staged with eight pools of water enhanced with dynamic lighting, costumes, and sound, the performance combines the Hemingway text with original portraits of everyday life to create a look at aging, legacy, and our relationship to the ocean.
Onstage you’ll hear music from longtime collaborators and muses of Prestini’s including Jeffrey Zeigler as the featured cellist, as well as percussionists and a 16-person chorus featuring students from Ohio State’s School of Music. The cast brings to life the book’s pivotal characters: Santiago, Manolin, and the wife, who’s rewritten as La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, a goddess in the Afro-Caribbean faith Santería found floating off the coast of Cuba in 1628. Themes of baseball, ecology, religion, and economy paint a conflict between progress, tradition, passion, and exploitation, ultimately shedding contemporary perspectives on this timeless tale. (100 mins., no intermission)
The Old Man and the Sea
Music by Paola Prestini
Libretto by Royce Vavrek
Directed and cocreated by Karmina Šilec
Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway
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Program Support
Presented by the Wexner Center for the Arts and Opera Columbus.
Produced by Beth Morrison Projects in association with VisionIntoArt and Arizona State University Cultural Affairs and its division of ASU Gammage.
Lead commissioning support provided by Arizona State University Cultural Affairs and its division of ASU Gammage. Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects, Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina, VisionIntoArt, Krannert Center of the Performing Arts, 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. Developmental residencies for The Old Man and the Sea provided at MASS MoCA and ASU Gammage.
Presented in collaboration with Opera Columbus.
PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Doris Duke Foundation
WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Mellon Foundation
Every Page Foundation
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts
CampusParc
Nationwide Foundation
Lois S. and H. Roy Chope Fund of The Columbus Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Axium Packaging
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang
Louise Lambert Braver
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The Old Man and the Sea