ALEXIA PENIGUEL
SONGWRITER + LIBRETTIST



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
Boxed In
Upcoming 2025Libretto for chamber opera with four singers
Composer: Courtney Cousins
Three siblings and a spouse get trapped in a storage unit while going through their parents’ belongings and must decide whether or not to reveal a secret about their father to the youngest. 
Ursa Minor
2024 Libretto for chamber opera with four singers
Composer: Zygmund de Somogyi
Synopsis
On the edge of a dark forest, runaway teenage Arthur is heartbroken over the loss of his dog and enraged at his parents’ attempt to sugarcoat her death. Not far from him, a young bear cub struggles to comprehend a terrible loss of its own. Amidst the trees, the two must come to terms with their shifting sense of self, and a harrowing decision must be made as Arthur’s mothers get closer to finding them. 
open libretto  


old logic
2024 Text for one singer
Composer: Darius Paymai
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
Trio
2024 Text for one singer
Composer: Reuben Esterhuizen
A piece written with composer Reuben Esterhuizen and mezzo-soprano Hella Termeulen. The text originates from the overlap of our  different cultural heritages and commonalities in slang.
open lyrics
link to video
Slowly
2022 Text for two singers
Composer: Moritz Sembritzki
A vignette about climate breakdown that doesn’t specifically reference climate breakdown, drawing from the image of a person languidly lying in bed, oblivious to the water rising around them, even as their bed begins to float. 
open lyrics
link to video
Kick & Rise
2019Text and music for layered voice and saxaphone
Composer: Alexia Peniguel
Written for avant-pop project Alex St Joan, inspired by the intense underwater pressure of the ocean and the parallels between that weight and the expectations of others. 
open lyrics


link to video
Eden 2.0
In progressLibretto for chamber opera with five singers
Composer: William Gardner
An opera about utopia, second chances and human fallibility.
Holding On To Wonder
In progressText and story for two singers
Composer: Moritz Sembritzki
An exploration of art, wonder and female rapport.
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