The Aurora Madrigals
Friday June 26 | doors at 7:30pm | performance at 8:00pm
$20 ADVANCE tickets | $25 DAY OF SHOW | $10 STUDENT tickets with ID | always pay what you can
a performance piece for solo vocalist and electronics with choreographed movement, reimagining Renaissance madrigals with layered vocal processing that explores the intimacy and intensity of pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood against a backdrop of global anxiety, while examining past and present representations of maternal femininity through immersive sound and gesture
“The Aurora Madrigals” is a theatrical piece, using live and processed vocals, electronics, and choreography. A contemporary book of madrigals, it explores this Renaissance form through vocal processing rather than traditional ensemble singing, and filters it through an aesthetic lens that includes hyperpop and ambient music.
Thematically, The Aurora Madrigals centers on matrescence: the biological and psychosocial transition of an individual into motherhood. Developed by director and choreographer Julia Eichten, the physical language of the piece draws on historical and contemporary representations of maternal femininity, from classical archetypes to their reinterpretations in film, dance, and visual art.
Alongside this cultural lens, the work conveys a raw, personal, embodied experience of pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood. Original spoken texts—interwoven within and across the madrigals—offer fragmentary and poetic reflections, while the visible, tactile use of technology to construct polyphony and transform the classical madrigal form foregrounds the tension between our contemporary reality and inherited structures. This reflects on how we might choose to inhabit and participate in historical or archetypical roles (such as pregnancy and motherhood) in the context of contemporary 21st century life.
Eliza Bagg
Eliza Bagg is an experimental vocalist and composer, exploring the voice and technology. She performs globally as a soloist —from the Concertgebouw and Komische Oper Berlin to the LA Philharmonic—and as a member of Roomful of Teeth. Her compositions push virtuosic vocal practice through electronic processing, blending divergent aesthetics in immersive solo albums and experimental opera projects.
Julia Eichten
Julia Eichten works between Opera, Theater and Dance as a Director, Choreographer, Educator and Performer. They received their BFA and the Hector Zaraspe Prize for Choreography from The Juilliard School, were a founding member of L.A. Dance Project and are a current member of AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company.) Xirl’s work has been shown at the Joyce Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC), L.A. Dance Project, The Gardens of Versailles and LUMA in Arles, FR. Last summer, Eichten performed in Joan Jonas’ iconic Mirror Piece I & II at The Getty Museum, which inspired hat company PAY DANCERS. Most Recently, Eichten had their Lincoln Center premiere, with a duet by EICHTERLING (Bret Easterling + Eichten) Dance in the Park. Rome is Falling, a new opera composed by Doug Balliet with Direction by Eichten also premiered at RUN AMOC* Festival as a part of Summer in the City at Lincoln Center.