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, will be presented at the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera at the SNFCC for five unique performances, on 3, 4, 8, 10, and 11 May 2025. 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.
Poe’s dramaturgical conversation is used to contrast the sophisticated and the kitschy, but also to functionally combine musical idioms ranging from the repository of classical melodrama to various styles of postmodern music.
Regarding the work’s concept and dramaturgy, Alekos Lountzis, who co-wrote the libretto with Orfeas Apergis, notes: “The opera seeks to transfuse the sense of asphyxiation found in the original story into the standardized present, and to project a double-edged sensation onto the only material that is abundantly available to us, digitalized and tangible – untouched or corrupted by abuse; in the common here and now weaved by the imminent claustrophobic universe of our world”.
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 21st century) gradually reaches its limitations, the threshold of fulfillment and/or that of (self)destruction.
Orestis Papaioannou’s musical composition draws upon a wide range of ideas, with a focus on the hybrid trends in 21st-century vocal music, while the orchestration, designed for a small ensemble reminiscent of a jazz band (trumpet, saxophone/clarinet, trombone, percussion, synthesizer, double bass), serves the work’s urban themes and incorporates jazz elements. Orestis Papaioannou remarks: “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.”
The stage direction of the opera, which unfolds into a box-like apartment, bears the stamp of Alexandros Efklidis. The director attempts to highlight both the distance from and the closeness to a futuristic world that becomes part of contemporary reality. As he remarks: “In this work, we focus on our relationship with the new age, our daily life in a new world, where people and machines co-exist and interact with one another. The House of Usher, in our version of the story, transforms into a common house. The house of ordinary people who lead predetermined lives inside identical apartments. A life of confinement and loneliness.”
The striking futuristic set and costumes were designed by Giannis Katranitsas. Marios Gampierakis and Chrysoula Korovesi handled the video designs, while Christos Tziogkas created the lighting design.
The cast features Chrissa Maliamani (Erika_7), Georgios Iatrou (He), Miranda Makrynioti (Danae), and Alexios Zervanos (Debater).
Michalis Papapetrou conducts the six-member instrumental ensemble consisting of: Kostas Tzekos clarinet, saxophone, Spyros Arkoudis trumpet, George Krimperis trombone, Haris Pazaroulas double bass, Kazuyo Tsunehiro percussion, Frixos Mortzos keyboard
The production was first presented in June 2023 as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival.
