Who is the hero here? The colonial officer in a grey uniform who has to wipe the sweat from his brow? The visitor from Europe who ultimately sees no other solution than to head home? Both gather around the execution machine, which uses needles to impress upon the condemned the law they have broken: if you don’t want to listen, you have to feel. This machine is the protagonist, the heart of the plot, in Franz Kafka’s story “In the Penal Colony” as well as in Philip Glass’ chamber opera “In the Penal Colony”, with which the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich (JCOM) is commemorating the centenary of Kafka’s death at the Munich Kammerspiele.
“In the Penal Colony” at the Munich Kammerspiele – Munich
