PENELOPE SLEEPS | AN OPERA BY METTE EDVARDSEN & MATTEO FARGION

Penelope Sleeps is an indirect reference to the figure of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, who waited for her husband for years while he travelled the world and waged war, and who, in the meantime, also kept a large number of suitors at bay. Like the tale of the small spider that Edvardsen recounts, Penelope was a weaver (etymologically, the Greek word pēnē refers to 'weft'). However, every night she would unravel the result of her work in order to start over again. The performance mimics working-without-an-outcome: Penelope Sleeps is, according to its subtitle, an opera, but besides being about the idea of musical theatre, it is about the notion of operating, of writing or performing — like the weaving of a text that is constantly beginning to fray.

NOTE: RRP Listed is for a double pass