Chamber Opera

Libreto by Rudolph Wurlitzer based on the tale by Franz Kafka

Arriving at a penal colony on an unnamed island, a visitor finds a complex execution engine ready to work on an anonymous convict. Watching over the merciless machine is an officer, the only person who understands how it works and believes in its reason for being.

Based on Franz Kafka’s eponymous short story, adapted by Rudy Wurlitzer and with music by Philip Glass, In The Penal Colony is an intense reflection on the fragile duality of human reason, where the fine line between justice and injustice is explored and crossed with narrative mastery.

In The Penal Colony is a modern classic that can be heard for the first time in Portugal, directed by Miguel Loureiro, musical direction by Martim Sousa Tavares and movement by Miguel Pereira.