ARTICLE: Aliana de la Guardia Wants to Push the Boundaries of Opera (Dig Boston)

JUNE 2, 2022 | WRITTEN BY JUSNEEL MAHAL

Aliana de la Guardia effortlessly jumps from task to task in her sunny Haverhill studio office. Surrounded by bamboo plants, percussion instruments, and old records, de la Guardia starts her day by taking calls from her opera company’s ensemble. She proceeds to rehearse and develop future shows with composers over Zoom. Administrative work dominates her afternoon as venue bookings and grants must be attended to. Running a chamber opera during a pandemic is no easy feat.

Despite all the ongoing challenges she has faced, de la Guardia finds the positive in everything. When the pandemic disrupted Boston’s theater industry, the artistic director of the multidisciplinary artist-run troupe, Guerilla Opera, refused to panic. Instead, she chose to see the tumultuous pandemic period and related restrictions as an opportunity to experiment and push the art form’s boundaries.