"The Fall of the House of Commons" Accessible performance at the Greek National Opera

May 4th and 11th, 2025

GNO Alternative Stage

Are you ready to explore the mysterious co-existence of human and artificial intelligence through an accessible opera?

ATLAS E.P. subtitles, interprets and describes for equal access the "Fall of the House of Commons", a work 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 through the directorial perspective of Alexandros Eflkidis.

Photo from the House of Commons. Humans and ΑΙ.

Information about the performance

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.

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.

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”.

You can find more information about the performance on the Greek National Opera's website: https://www.nationalopera.gr/en/alternative-stage/es-opera/item/6677-the-fall-of-the-house-of-commons

Accessibilit Services

Audio description, voice-over of English dialogues, surtitling, translation and services review, accessibility production organising:

Emmanouela Patiniotaki

Surtitling:

Ilias Katsigiannis

Interpreting in Greek Sign Language:

Ephie Psaradelli, Polyvios Kosmatos

Interpreting Assistance:

Dialechti Tzanoulinou

TICKET BOOKING

Audience members who want to make use of the accessibility services are kindly requested to purchase their tickets at the GNO Box Office, by phone at 2130885700 or by email at boxoffice@nationalopera.gr.

For any assistance required with the bookings, audience members may also contact ATLAS E.P. at +30 6993507553 or by email at askatlasep@gmail.com.