Malena Dayen is an Argentinian opera singer and director and a Princeton Hodder fellow.

Malena won the Catapult Opera’s competition for innovation in opera for her video of Wallen’s The Silent Twins and directed Teatro Grattacielo’s Fedora and Mefistofele video productions, that were selected to the international festivals of Munich, London and Bali. She directed El Amor Brujo and L’Amico Fritz at LaMama in 2021. As creative director of Bare Opera she directed Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires, Don Giovanni, Heroes of New York and The Late Walk that was inducted into The Library of Congress’ Performing Arts COVID-19 Response Collection. 

Malena recently directed Dialogue des Carmélites at Montclair University, Romeo et Juliette, Carmen and Frida with Opera Naples, Aida and La Medium with Forth Worth Opera and Firesongs at Chelsea Factory in collaboration with National Sawdust. Malena co-created The Presence of Odradek, a new opera based Kafka’s The Cares of a Family Man that was presented in live VR online in May 2020. She is a collaborative artist at Carnegie Hall since 2017 and she co-created luzAzul, an opera for babies 0-2 that premiered in June 2023 at Chelsea Factory. Since 2019, Malena has collaborated extensively with creative technologist and projections designer Sangmin Chae.