ERRATICA: La Celestina

A video opera and immersive dramatic-musical experience by ERRATICA.

At the center of one of the great masterpieces of Spanish literature is La Celestina: a witch, a healer, a meddler, a prostitute, and, perhaps, a conversa. Published in 1499, the work popularly known as La Celestina catapulted Spanish literature out of the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance.

Commissioned for the Met’s extraordinary sixteenth-century Vélez Blanco Patio, La Celestina is now a site-specific video opera that tells the story of a nobleman; his beloved; his dishonest, scheming servants; and the local prostitute/witch.

Using a multichannel audio and video installation with projections designed by Manual Cinema, ERRATICA transforms this unique architectural space into an immersive dramatic-musical experience in which the characters each tell their own version of the story, Rashomon-style.

Full of ribald jokes, outrageous circumstances, and scathing social criticism, the story takes a very dark turn and ends in unfathomable tragedy. The music combines Spanish villancicos (polyphonic vocal music) with Judeo-Spanish as well as Arabic and Andalusian folk music.

ERRATICA: La Celestina

• U.S. Premiere.
• Written and directed by Patrick Eakin Young. Composed by Matt Rogers.
• One of the most intriguing productions this spring… (New Yorker)

View full program (PDF).