Based on the Ernest Hemingway 1952 novella, this innovative adaptation of The Old Man and the Sea is the result of a collaboration between illustrious composer Paola Prestini, librettist Royce Vavrek, and conductor and stage director Karmina Šilec. Breathtakingly staged with eight pools of water enhanced with dynamic lighting, costumes, and sound, the performance combines the Hemingway text with original portraits of everyday life to create a look at aging, legacy, and our relationship to the ocean.

Onstage you’ll hear music from longtime collaborators and muses of Prestini’s including Jeffrey Zeigler as the featured cellist, as well as percussionists and a 16-person chorus featuring students from Ohio State’s School of Music. The cast brings to life the book’s pivotal characters: Santiago, Manolin, and the wife, who’s rewritten as La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, a goddess in the Afro-Caribbean faith Santería found floating off the coast of Cuba in 1628. Themes of baseball, ecology, religion, and economy paint a conflict between progress, tradition, passion, and exploitation, ultimately shedding contemporary perspectives on this timeless tale.

The Old Man And The Sea

Mershon Auditorium

Wexner Center for the Arts

Drag the witch! Rip off your bonnets and sneak into the woods of Puritan New England, where bible thumpers and booty bumpers rendezvous in secret gothic gaiety. Cast out those prudish finger-pointers with the rapturous music of Copland, Donizetti, John Adams and more, as American history spreads herself open for you at Heartbeat Opera’s cockamamie Crucible.

Rodolfo Girón

Events

Past events

10 - 12 Oct, 2025

The Old Man And The Sea · Opera Columbus

10 - 12 Oct, 2024

SLAYLEM: The Witch Trials · Heartbeat Opera

Future and recently performed repertoire

Manolin in The Old Man and the Sea by Prestini

Opera Columbus

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