Reviewing the 2025 PROTOTYPE Festival
- Alkis Karmpaliotis
- Feb 10
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 12
By Alkis Karmpaliotis
Founder of AppreciateOpera.org
Prototype, New York’s annual contemporary opera and experimental theater festival, just concluded its 12th season, performing a diverse mix of works across the city, from digital Hip-Hoperas to immersive artistic salons. I had the pleasure of covering the festival for the second straight year, and found this season’s program even more exciting than the last.
I saw three shows this year, each marking a different genre that the festival had to offer. First, I saw the New York premiere of Christopher Cerrone’s opera In A Grove, a dramatic adaptation of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s classic short story. Second, I attended Art Bath, an immersive salon with a variety of performances that culminated in an interactive art party. Finally, I saw Telekinetik, an online Hip-Hopera by the bold composer Khary Laurent.
In A Grove, performed at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in downtown Manhattan, was an utter triumph. The original story shows the murder of Takehiro, a samurai, from multiple perspectives in a series of testimonies. This operatic adaptation moves the action to the Pacific Northwest, offering a haunting meditation on the subjectivity of memory and perception.
The story unfolded in four sections, each expressing a different character’s point of view of a murder in the woods. The opera featured four singers—Mikaela Bennett, John Brancy, Chuanyuan Liu, and Paul Appleby—each delivering masterful performances, their voices intertwining with gripping intensity. They were also phenomenal actors, which came through in combat scenes, when murderer and victim went face to face.
Cerrone’s score is intense and vivid, containing slow, pulsing phrases as well as dramatic rhythmic shifts. At times recitative-like, at times hauntingly melodic, the score is made even more powerful through Cerrone’s subtle use of vocal manipulation, reverb, and looping effects, which we’ll get into more later. On stage, director Mary Birnbaum employs a minimalistic aesthetic, with all the action taking place on a long, thin platform with audience members on either side. The set is largely empty, save for a glass panel that bisects the stage at pivotal moments in the story. In the post-show conversation, Birnbaum noted that the panel had been cleverly nicknamed “The Knife.” Towards the end of the show, a hidden curtain falls to reveal an extension to the stage, which represents the afterlife and adds a powerful dramatic twist, accompanied perfectly by the music.
The performance I attended featured conductor Luke Poeppel leading the ten-piece Metropolis Ensemble, stepping in for music director Raquel Acevedo Klein. The orchestration, rich with atmospheric textures, included striking effects such as a violin bow drawn across a xylophone edge, further amplifying the eerie tone of the piece.
The post-show conversation revealed a lot of what went into crafting this production. Cerrone elaborated on his use of sound technology to add special effects to the singers’ voices. Although seemingly effortless during the show, this innovative technique required hundreds of careful maneuvers and close communication between the stage, ensemble, and sound board. These vocal effects were most effective in intense moments, such as when the murderer lured his victim into his trap and attacked him. All in all, In A Grove is the best of what modern opera can be—engaging, innovative, and deeply meaningful in its message.
The following night, I was introduced to a completely different artistic experience: the salon. Although Art Bath is a long-running New York tradition, this was its first year collaborating with the Prototype Festival. As we entered the space, we were greeted by drinks, jello shots (which I had to forgo, being under 21), and an array of paintings and sculptures pictured below.
A one-night-spectacle, completely sold out, the show began with an intimate recital by superstar bass Soloman Howard, who also performed in Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera the following night. Howard sang classic American songs, including “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “We Are the World,” all united by a common theme of “humanity.” After his performance, everyone moved into a different room, where puppeteers Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane performed an intimate piece called Birdheart, also with themes of life and humanity. The night culminated with two grand performances. First, a roller-skating show accompanied by countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, soprano Danielle Buonaiuto, and thereminist Rob Schwimmer. Then, an exciting roller-skating show featuring roller-skating artist Manuela Agudelo Roberts and the group Saha Gnawa (Gnawa is a genre of Moroccan music, mostly heard in religious songs) that developed into an art party during which the entire audience stood up and began dancing.
Art Bath gives us a little taste of everything. Song, dance, visual art, European, African, American—it had it all. It demonstrates the power of art on dozens of different levels and how powerful it can be to blend different art forms together. It is also an impressive showcase of versatility: Soloman Howard, although known as an operatic bass, proved capable of much more than just arias, crossing over into modern music of an entirely different style. Just as he is not an opera-only singer, Art Bath reminded the audience that we are not opera-only fans—we can and must appreciate other forms of music and art, from American folk songs to Gnawa. Doing so takes us out of our comfort zone and urges us to expand our minds, enhancing our artistic experience along the way.
Finally, Telekinetik was the most out-of-the-box production of the three, showcasing the variety of contemporary opera and all the different directions it can take using technology. A Catapult Opera production, Telekinetik is a Hip-Hopera that was available to stream online throughout the dates of the festival, about a “would-be vigilante, tortured by a telepathic shaman, [who] learns a difficult lesson about justice versus bloodlust.”
Through its bold programming, the Prototype Festival once again proved its commitment to pushing the boundaries of contemporary opera. Whether through the haunting psychological drama of In A Grove, the eclectic communal energy of Art Bath, or the genre-bending innovation of Telekinetik, this year’s festival celebrated the infinite possibilities of artistic storytelling.
See you next year, Prototype!
My name is Alkis Karmpaliotis, I'm a senior at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and I founded AppreciateOpera.org in 2019 when I was 12 years old. If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out some of my other articles and interviews!
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