Xenia (2019)

An Opera

Commissioned by the Contemporary Music Centre and Bealtaine, Xenia (Part I-II) is a wildly anarchic exploration of Hospitality, in response to the Bealtaine Festival’s ‘Be Our Guest’ theme 2018-20. 

The work takes place in transit, in transitional places; seeking temporary refuge in cultural institutions and the streets between them. 

In its becoming, the piece explores the impossibility of the absolute Other, epitomised by Jacques Derrida and Anne Dufourmantelle's observing in 'Of Hospitality' (Éditions Calmann-Lévy, 1997) that the Greek and French words 'Xenos' and 'Hôte' respectively mean both guest and host. 

This thesis, and its wider political implications for migration, refuge and identity in the current climate, are part of the terrain explored by the work.