Sor Juana: The Inner Fortress

"Sor Juana: The Inner Fortress" is a multidisciplinary opera about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz- the leading intellectual of the Spanish Colonial period, hailed as Latin America's first feminist. Though cloistered, she was allowed to publish for the first part of her life, while remaining in touch with scholars and writers. At forty, she signs a vow of silence in her blood, and five years later, succumbs to cholera when caring for her sisters during the epidemic of 1695. The work will bring to the fore the contradictions of her spirit, divided between her search for knowledge and her faith, as she finally surrenders to the pressures of the patriarchal figures of the Church. The work will further The Opera Atelier's search for a more complete artistic language begun in Love and Ashes (2016), and continued in Embraces (2019), and Miami Transfer (2022).