What is this project?

The Glass Cage is a 60-minute staged interdisciplinary opera for soprano vocalist and live- and pre-recorded electronics, featuring real-time audio and spatial interaction with video projection art. Setting and interpreting historical texts by Juana Inés de la Cruz, Teresa of Avila, and Rose of Lima, the work will explore connections between mysticism, affliction, and female empowerment in 16th-century Spain and Latin America. The opera will be composed by Stephanie Lamprea, with a libretto by Jennifer Williams, video projection art by Kirsty Anderson, and sound design by Alistair MacDonald. The opera will be produced and performed by Lamprea (soprano vocalist), MacDonald (electronics), Roxana Cole (dramaturg), and Reese Manglicmot (producer).
The opera is a triptych work that will tell stories of three historical figures of 16th- century Spain and Latin America: Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582), the first canonised saint of Latin America, Rose of Lima (1586-1617), and Hieronymite nun, poet, and protofeminist nicknamed 'The Tenth Muse', Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695). ​​Engaging with provocative poems and treatises about women’s rights and ecological consciousness created by Juana Inés de la Cruz, medical and spiritual documentations of raptures and visions experienced by Teresa of Ávila, and reimaginings of the historical afflictions and mystical events experienced by Rose of Lima, the stories of these figures will be braided into an exciting and unique operatic performance about feminist reclamation of the self and bodily autonomy, addressing topics of ecstatic experience, affliction, gender representation and expression, and resilience within a world of colonisation.
Teresa of Avila, portrait by François Gérard
Rose of Lima, portrait by Carlo Dolci
Juana Inés de la Cruz, portrait by Miguel Cabrera
This operatic work will integrate interactice audio and visual technologies to amplify the operatic voice and body within organic and digital spaces. Projections shown in the performance will include realtime videos that react to live stage movement via visual programming software TouchDesigner and to amplified sound processed through audio software MaxMSP. Projections will be displayed on screens, as well as on curtains worn and manipulated by the live performer in order that the projection itself can be a live, moving body. Treating the operatic voice as inherently technological, this new work will showcase innovative ways to combine audio and visual technologies with staged operatic performance, revealing embodied aesthetic experiences of mystical reclamation, free will, and the ecstatic as tangible, rapturous, and uplifting.
Activities

September-December 2026: Creative development of The Glass Cage
March 2027: Dramaturgical develop and workshop demonstration at Scottish Opera
April 2027: Public-facing work-in-progress performance at The Boardwalk, Glasgow
Collaborators
Colombian-American soprano Stephanie Lamprea is an architect of new sounds and expressions as a performer, composer, and interdisciplinary artist. Trained as an operatic coloratura, Stephanie uses her voice as a mechanism of avant-garde performance art, creating “maniacal shifts of vocal production and character… like an icepick through the skull” (composer Jason Eckardt). Her work has been described as “stunning, harrowing, agonising, sonorous..." by The Observer, "divinely deranged" by the Herald Scotland, and that she “sings so expressively and slowly with ever louder and higher-pitched voice, that the inclined listener [has] shivers down their back and tension flows into the last row." (Halberstadt.de) 
Kirsty Anderson is a creative technologist and projection artist working at the intersection of live performance, digital media, and immersive storytelling. Her practice focuses on real-time generative visuals, projection design, and interactive systems for theatre and music performance. Using tools such as Touchdesigner and projection mapping, she creates responsive visual environments that evolve alongside performers and sound. Her work spans contemporary opera, experimental music events, and gallery contexts, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and immersive audience experience.
Jennifer Williams is a contemporary poet, performer, and educator whose work explores themes of myth, metaphysics, nature and the human experience through a lyrical and often superreal lens. Born in New Jersey, USA, and based in Edinburgh, Scotland, Williams has a strong international presence, blending American and Scottish literary traditions with a distinctive voice that often challenges and expands the boundaries of poetry. Her poetry collections include Condition of Fire (2004), Locust and Marlin (2014), After Economy (2017), Origin (2022) and Strange Architectures (2026), which have garnered critical acclaim for their vivid imagery, emotional depth, and innovative use of form.
Alistair MacDonald is a composer and performer who creates uniquely rich, spatialised music and sound. Often collaborative, his work encompasses field recording, live electronics, interactivity and improvisation with live electronics. He makes standalone electroacoustic works, music for instruments and voices, music and sound design for dance, film and art gallery installations. Recent recordings include duo performances with soprano Stephanie Lamprea, Scottish harpist Catriona McKay, and Estonian singer Anne-Liis Poll. A solo CD of his electroacoustic works was published in 2017 by Canadian label empreintes DIGITALes.
Roxana Cole (neè Haines) is a theatre and opera director based in Glasgow. She was the resident staff director at Scottish Opera from 2018 to 2023, during which time she directed an acclaimed outdoor production of La Bohème (5* The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Scotsman), as well as productions of L’Elisir d’Amore and Così Fan Tutte for camera. Roxana has worked throughout Europe and America, including Associate Director roles at The Metropolitan Opera, Detroit Opera and Welsh National Opera (Golijov Ainadamar). She has assisted directors including Sir David McVicar, Katie Mitchell, Deborah Colker, John Fulljames, Phelim McDermott and Dominic Hill.  Roxana’s work in opera initially arose from her interest in collaboration and interdisciplinary work.
Glasgow-based musical artist Reese Carly Manglicmot is carving a unique path founded on versatility, operating primarily as a composer and performer. Her composition work has been recognised through her accolades as a winner of the BBC Young Composer Competition 2023, and a two-time finalist in the NCEM Young Composers Award. Reese’s “positively eloquent” music has been performed across the UK and Europe by groups including the BBC Concert Orchestra, (BBC Proms), the Red Note Ensemble (soundfestival Aberdeen) and Nordic Viola (University of Stirling).
Partners and Supporters
The Glass Cage is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, the Hinrichsen Foundation, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Innovation Studio, with additional and in-kind support from Scottish Opera and The Boardwalk, Glasgow.

Booking inquiries for performance:

​Contact Stephanie via her contact page: http://www.stephanielamprea.com/contact.html
​Technical requirements available upon request.