Please recommend a slideshow plugin

I’m building a website for a house museum. I’m looking for a free slideshow plugin, and would appreciate recommendations from other WordPress users. Our theme is Esplanade.

I would like to build a Galleries page which is the menu for 3 to 6 separate slideshows. I envision a clickable link under a thumbnail for each gallery. Each slideshow may have from 10 to 50 images.

When a gallery link is clicked, I would like a pop out slideshow that will appear on top of (i.e., cover all or most of) the Galleries page, so viewers only have to close the slideshow to return to the Galleries page.

I’m looking for something very modern and clean, with a dark, possibly semi-transparent photo box. I’d like autoplay and a fade transition. I don’t need thumbnails, but a caption option would be a plus.

I don’t have sidebars, so this can’t be widget-based. It would be nice if I didn’t have to create a separate page for each slideshow (which I think I’d have to do with shortcodes, right)? The ability to handle different sized images within the same slideshow would be great.

I have limited experience with slideshows, so advice is appreciated! Also, links to sites that are currently using the plugin under discussion are extremely helpful.

Thanks, folks!