ALEXIA PENIGUEL
LIBRETTIST + COMPOSER



Ursa Minor. Karima El Demerdasch and Biqing Zhang. Milton Court Studio Theatre, London, June 2024.
Photo: Zoe Birkbeck for Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

WORK
Eden 2.0
July 2026Libretto for chamber opera with five singers
Composer: William Gardner
Premiere: Grimeborn Festival, London, UK
15-18 July 2026 An opera about utopia and second chances.  Three people from different eras are plucked from their homes by a pair of bickering gods with dubious intent. Deposited in a vast garden with access to all human knowledge, they are tasked with the challenge of designing a world that can endure. But as their experiment unfolds, they begin to discover that knowledge alone may not be enough. 
Holding On To Wonder
2025Libretto for concept album
Composer: Moritz Sembritzki
Album: Holding On To Wonder
Release: September 2025 by Fun In The Church An album about art, purpose and female communion. Told through letters, conversations, and music, the story of Pen, a writer, and Bee, a painter, explores the often-unspoken realities of creative life, from self-doubt to ambition, motivation to professional jealousy and bursts of achievement to quiet, steadfast persistence. At its heart, though, is a love story — a deep friendship between two women who believe in each other, even when they struggle to believe in themselves.
open libretto excerpt
Boxed In
2025Libretto for chamber opera with four singers
Composer: Courtney Cousins
Premiere: Angela Burgess Recital Hall, London, UK
13 March 2025An opera about family and the stories we tell ourselves. Three siblings and a spouse get trapped in a storage unit while going through their parents’ belongings. As panic rises,  the two eldest must decide whether or not to reveal a secret about their father to the youngest. 
open libretto excerpt
Ursa Minor
2024 Libretto for chamber opera with four singers
Composer: Zygmund de Somogyi
Premiere: Milton Court Studio Theatre, London, UK
20 - 25 June 2024 An opera about grief, puberty and radical empathy. 
As teenage runaway Arthur grieves in a forest over the death of his dog, a young bear cub nearby struggles to comprehend a terrible loss of its own. Amidst the trees, the two must come to terms with their new situation and a harrowing decision must be made as Arthur’s mothers get closer to finding them. 
open libretto excerpt  

old logic
2024 Text for one singer
Composer: Darius Paymai
Premiere: Milton Court Concert Hall, London, UK
22 May 2024 A piece written with composer Darius Paymai, soprano Harriet Cameron and pianist Jungyi Cao about the unreliability of memory and how to reconcile what fades as time passes. The live performance further embraces fragmentation.
open lyrics
Slowly
2022 Text for two singers
Composer: Moritz Sembritzki
Album: “Magnetic Ghost Orchestra”
Release: 2022 by Fun In The Church  A vignette about climate breakdown that frames denial from the perspective of a person lying in bed, impervious to the water rising around them, even as their bed begins to float. 
open lyrics
link to live video
If I Forgive
2020Lyrics, music, artwork, short stories
Composer: Alexia Peniguel (as Alex St Joan)
Release: 2020 by Zellephan Records An EP about forgiveness and freedom. The last track, Nothing to Forgive, is a paen to self-compassion, folding painful memory into release and rebirth. 
open lyrics

Kick & Rise
2019Lyrics, music, artwork, short stories
Composer: Alexia Peniguel (as Alex St Joan)
Release: 2019 by Zellephan Records An EP about resolve and resistance. The title track is an overture for autonomy, pushing back against the expectations of others as if they were the weight of the ocean itself.
open lyrics
link to live video


Of Birds
2015Lyrics, music, artwork
Composer: Alexia Peniguel (as A Seated Craft)
Release: 2015 by Revolver RecordsAn album about birds and homecoming. The 6th track on the album, Ducks & Drakes, echoes a fatigue that cannot be relieved, like a stone skipping endlessly across a lake, unable to pierce its surface.
open lyrics

The Savage And The Small
2011Lyrics, music, artwork
Composer: Alexia Peniguel (as A Seated Craft)
Release: 2011 by Songs & WhispersAn album about constellations and yearning.  The 8th track on the album, Cloudberries, breathes life into drought, bringing renewal and the rushing joy of long-awaited rain.
open lyrics


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