The festival’s work tends shortish in length, intimate in size, and darkish, ambiguous and poetic in mood. This describes Mr. Maqoma’s work as much as Danielle Birrittella and Zoe Aja Moore’s “Magdalene,” performed at HERE’s home in SoHo. “Magdalene,” a song cycle delegated among 14 female composers, draws its text from poetry by Marie Howe that explores women’s lives, obliquely, through the virgin-whore archetype of Mary Magdalene. (“Who had me before I knew I was an I?”) But “Magdalene” grew on me. But mostly it was because of Ms. Birrittella, who gave an exposed, intelligent and earnest performance in what was essentially a one-woman show.

Source: New York Times January 19, 2020 18:56 UTC