By Michela Arlia
Originally hailing from Argentina, Malena Dayen is a well-established opera singer who has performed all over the world and worked with accomplished composers in the New York City opera scene, building a name for herself that goes without notice.
Dayen was recently awarded the Hodder Fellowship in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University after earning her MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College in 2020. Her time at BC helped to pave the way towards this amazing accomplishment.
With her Argentine background, Dayen always had a passion for tango music, as it influenced her roots. It is here where she began to first fall in love with music and her artistic journey started.
“Tango is my musical mother tongue, the music I grew up with and that I still keep discovering,” expressed Dayen. “It’s like a treasure trunk in the attic where I keep finding new inspiration. The tradition of tango is very rich and in a way, very operatic.”
Dayen’s love of music has transformed itself over the years. A singer at heart, she always felt the creative need to explore how other artforms interact with opera and how to best blend them together for the audience’s pleasure.
“Although I know opera is where I belong in terms of making art, the role I have in it has changed in the last years and the discovery of what I do with opera is still ongoing,” Dayen told The Vanguard. “I’m passionate about the intersections of opera with other art forms, like dance, film, and new technologies.”
Following her time at BC, she came out of the program directing many innovative projects for major opera companies, where she experimented to great lengths and pushed boundaries where necessary.
In November 2021, Dayen directed “Cuando el Fuego Abrasa,” a co-production of Opera Hispánica and Teatro Grattacielo at LaMama. Other directing credits include a production of Pietro Mascagni’s “L’Amico Fritz” at the Festival of the Voice in Phoenicia, NY and LaMama, “Heroes of New York,” and “The Late Walk,” a new opera in collaboration with Bare Opera and the Decameron Opera Coalition that was inducted into The Library of Congress’s Performing Arts COVID-19 Response Collection. Dayen also starred and directed in a production of Astor Piazzolla’s “Maria de Buenos Aires” and “Don Giovanni” with Bare Opera in New York City.
Dayen has been fortunate enough to work on many projects over the course of her career, her latest being one that was springboarded by her classmates at BC.
“My time at BC was amazing,” said Dayen. “I had a group of outstanding professors that became mentors and offered excellent opportunities and support.”
Dayen and fellow alum Sangmin Chae have co-created a new experimental operatic work entitled “Exercises on The Presence of Odradek,” which blended the styles of opera and technology, and was performed in a live online format.
Dayen expressed that her main goal is to use her awarded fellowship with the Lewis Center to create more opportunities for experimental theater and use her knowledge of technology in the artform.
“I will work on several operatic pieces exploring new technologies, online performances and ways to make live opera more accessible to a diverse audience,” said Dayen.
Having moved to New York with her husband in 2001, Dayen has built a life in a place that she is proud to call her now-home, with many opportunities such as the fellowship helping her along the way.
“We [Dayen and her husband] both found the diversity of its people and the immense cultural and artistic offerings very inspiring and are now proud to be part of this community and be called New Yorkers,” Dayen said.