The FALL OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

Description

The contemporary opera The Fall of the House of Commons, a futuristic and bold work about the mysterious co-existence of human and artificial intelligence now on GNO TV. With music composed by Orestis Papaioannou, based on a concept and dramaturgy by Alekos Lountzis, and with a libretto penned by Alekos Lountzis and Orfeas Apergis, this work brings to life a fantasy world, a reality not far from our own, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s archetypal short story The Fall of the House of Usher, through the directorial perspective of Alexandros Eflkidis. The six-member instrumental ensemble will be conducted by Michalis Papapetrou.

A contemporary opera about the “broken ecosystem of postmodern cities”, as envisioned by its creators. The inner space of modern apartments increasingly reminds us of a reflection on a turned-off high-definition screen, where human and artificial intelligence coexist in a mysterious way. All the goods are home delivered, relationships are formed and break indoors, and fantasies sound like phone ringtones.

Conversing with Edgar Allan Poe’s archetypal story The Fall of the House of Usher, where both the house and its residents are merged in a closed circuit, the work tracks the sounds produced by the life inside and outside the walls of a typical contemporary apartment. The self-referential universe of the couple living in it exudes a spectral balance. A dominant position is held by the android supervisor Erika_7, who’s always available to rewrite the house’s memory and offer solutions to the symbiosis crossword puzzle.

Production of the Athens Epidaurus Festival 2023

The funding body of the project is the Ministry of Culture, within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan "Greece 2.0" with funding from the European Union - NextGeneration EU.

At a glance – Synopsis

The plot unfolds over five scenes, featuring a broken couple (He and She), a visitor (Danae) who is also the double of the absent female partner, and an omnipresent and all-watching digital assistant (Erika_7) that records the memory of the House, the wrath of its residents, and the symbiotic crossword. The confinement in a space where one’s complete needs and pleasures can largely be satisfied (ranging from a 19th-century castle with its servants to the endless digitalized services of the 21^st century) gradually reaches its limitations, the threshold of fulfillment and/or that of (self)destruction.

Creative team – Cast

Music: Orestis Papaioannou
Concept, dramaturgy: Alekos Lountzis
Libretto: Alekos Lountzis, Orfeas Apergis
Musical direction: Michalis Papapetrou
Stage direction: Alexandros Efklidis
Set, costumes: Giannis Katranitsas
Video designers: Marios Gampierakis, Chrysoula Korovesi
Lighting design, projection mapping: Christos Tziogkas

Erika_7: Chrissa Maliamani
He: Georgios Iatrou
Danae: Miranda Makrynioti
Debater: Alexios Zervanos

Clarinet, saxophone: Kostas Tzekos
Trumpet: Spyros Arkoudis
Trombone: George Krimperis
Double bass: Haris Pazaroulas
Percussion: Kazuyo Tsunehiro
Keyboard: Frixos Mortzos

Director's note

The Fall of the House of Commons adopts a pluralistic and eclectic musical approach, which reflects the thematic contrasts present in the libretto, such as present vs past, human vs artificial, modern vs traditional, and order vs chaos. Through this logic, both dichotomies and blends of seemingly opposing elements emerge, such as tonal and atonal language, as well as speech and singing, creating musical or expressional hybrids. Thus, the work does not follow a continuous form; instead, it is divided into smaller musical episodes – “tableaux” – that deliberately interrupt its flow