Originally developed as the sonic counterpart to an exhibition by visual artist Anastasia Bay, Mæstra Lacrymæ is an opera conceived and directed by Bay and written and composed by multidisciplinary artist Joseph Schiano di Lombo.
Originating in their 2024 collaboration at the Brussels gallery Sorry We're Closed, the work has evolved into an autonomous double vinyl edition. Rather than documenting the exhibition, the record expands its visual universe into a distinctive operatic work.
Structured in five acts, the opera unfolds through five archetypal figures: Golem, Artemis, Dibutadès, Penelope and Gille-en-Elle. Performed through a single voice transformed across multiple identities, these characters draw on mythology, art history, carnival traditions and contemporary feminist thought. As a way of conveying Anastasia Bay's eerie, multi-layered Baroque visual world, the composition brings together ancient poetic forms, opera, spoken word and electroacoustic treatments in a work that moves freely between music, theatre and visual art.
Joseph Schiano di Lombo's musical composition and performance move fluidly between genres, delicately touching on electronic ritual, psych-folk songs, ethereal modern classical music, and haunting minimalism. The double LP presents the complete opera as a listening experience while preserving its close relationship to the exhibition from which it emerged.
Designed by Quentin Lamouroux (Bye Bye Binary), the album captures the complexity of this crossover experiment by presenting a complete libretto of the opera in the form of an art object.
Anastasia Bay (born 1988 in Paris) creates paintings that draw upon mythological and art historical sources, blending ancient figurative traditions with contemporary culture. A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the French artist is based in Brussels. Her work draws on the powers of theatre and opera to channel the subversive forces of carnival, extending painting into the environment and onto the stage.
Joseph Schiano di Lombo (born 1991 in Chambéry) is a French composer, visual artist, and author. Initially trained in piano and clarinet, he graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs de Paris. His unclassifiable music explores the boundaries between songwriting, experimental music, and modern composition. Often working in collaboration, across disciplines, he has composed for films, exhibitions, and fashion brands.
