The pandemic has been tough for the arts and especially so for the performing arts, with theaters closed and productions postponed. But at the annual Prototype Festival, a leader in experimental opera-theater and music-theater, the coronavirus has provided a jumping-off point. For this year’s edition of the festival, the artistic directors Beth Morrison and Jecca Barry (Beth Morrison Projects) and Kristin Marting (HERE Arts Center) commissioned a centerpiece called Modulation, in which musicians—Sahba Aminikia, Yvette Janine Jackson, Angélica Negrón, and Daniel Bernard Roumain among them—provide brief vocal works in response to the past year. The result is singular, timely, and moving. —J.V.

With the exception of one in-person installation, all performances are streaming online on the festival’s Web site.