Prototype Festival, New Vision for Opera NYC presents: MILA, GREAT SORCERER

Folk hero, singer, and spiritual teacher, Milarepa has been venerated for one thousand years. But as a child, directed by his mother, he wields black magic against the aunt and uncle that stole his inheritance, and destroys his entire village. His remorse sends him on a life journey from mass murder to enlightenment. Set to lush orchestration melding Eastern and Western sounds, his transformation and redemption into the most revered teacher of Tibetan Buddhism offer hope and spiritual wayfinding to all who regret acts of consequence and seek higher ground. 

Composed by Andrea Clearfield
Libretto by Jean-Claude van Itallie & Lois Walden
Directed by Kevin Newbury
Conducted by Manoj Kamps
Featuring the Knights

Commissioned by Gene Kaufman and Terry Eder Kaufman

“Ms. Clearfield’s consonant and melodic style, and the ease with which she moves between graceful tracery and lively, rhythmically vital writing, suits these instruments and players perfectly…” 
— Alann Kozinn, The New York Times

“Clearfield is a natural musical dramatist.”
— Joshua Rosenblum, Opera News Magazine

“The audience is drawn to participate with the actors in a kind of eucharist.”
— Walter Kerr, The New York Times

Referred to as “one of the great things about being in New York City in January” by Opera News, the 7^th annual festival of PROTOTYPE: Opera | Theatre | Now returns January 5-13, 2019. The pioneering festival features eleven presentations that, characteristically, “shift the whole paradigm of what opera is and can be” (New York Observer).