- Spring 2024: Among the Flowers of D.C. | May 20, 2024 -

Paulina spent much of the spring season in Washington D.C. performing with Opera Lafayette and The Washington Bach Consort.

In February she sang in Opera Lafayette’s production From Saint-Cyr to Cannons: Moreau and Handel’s Esther, led by Justin Taylor and Jonathan Woody. The program included the modern premiere of Jean-Baptiste Moreau’s Musique pour l’Esther de Jean Racine and selections from Handel’s Esther. Reviews from the Washington Post and Observer celebrated Paulina’s clarity, control, and “plangently crystalline soprano.”

In March, Paulina presented a solo recital entitledCanoro pianto et affetti on the Chamber Series of the Washington Bach Consort. The program celebrated the music and lives of women in 17th century Italy and was discussed at length in an interview with WETA. The program was recieved with enthusiasm by The Washington Post:

“But it was largely Francisco’s spotlight on Friday (the program was repeated on Saturday at St. Paul’s in Alexandria). She brought intuition, sensitivity and no small measure of courage to the complex ornamentation of Strozzi’s “Mater Anna.” Her closeness to the material was evident in a soaring reading of “O già della mia mano” — a selection of uncertain authorship from the 1613 multi-composer print collection “Canoro pianto di Maria Vergine sopra la faccia Christo Estinto.” And she embodied the dramatic turns of “L’amante segreto” — a secular lament over unrequited love, its sting sharpened by Francisco’s aching refrain: “I would rather die/ than let my pain be discovered.”

In April, Paulina was a late addition to the cast of Opera Lafayette’s modern premiere of Jean-Joseph Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie, directed by Christophe Rousset. Paulina sang the role of Thalie, the muse of comedy, which was charmingling reviewed as “punked out in a rainbow wig and pink leather — Francisco was delightfully insouciant” by The Washington Post, and “Francisco’s lighter soprano and kicky stage presence combined aptly with her costuming, making her look something like a rainbow-haired Cyndi Lauper. Her runs sparkled beautifully in the fast-moving air “Venez, volez de toutes parts.” by the Washington Classical Review.