Opera Hispánica and the Americas Society, in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, present the North American premiere of Ñomongeta (Conversation). Paraguayan tenor José Mongelós stars as a contemporary Guarani man who converses with Christopher Columbus about the effects of colonization on the Guarani people and the environment.

Ñomongeta, which combines contemporary and Indigenous music traditions with the lyricism of opera, is the first Guarani-language opera. It was written by Paraguayan composer Diego Sánchez Haase and librettist Modesto Escobar Aquino, with epilogue by Pedro Paredes Argüello.