TURNmusic is thrilled to present: PENELOPE for Mezzo-soprano and Septet.

Composed by Sarah Kirkland Snider. Lyrics by Ellen McLaughlin.

This modern song cycle explores relationships, compassion and healing. The musical style is influenced by both Western classical and vernacular (indie rock/pop/folk) traditions. Inspired by Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey, Penelope is a meditation on memory, identity, and what it means to come home. Written in 2009 for Shara Worden and Ensemble Signal, Penelope is based on a music-theater monodrama written by Snider and playwright Ellen McLaughlin for the J. Paul Getty Center in 2008.

In the work, a woman’s husband appears at her door after an absence of twenty years, suffering from brain damage. A veteran of an unnamed war, he doesn’t know who he is and she doesn’t know who he's become. While they wait together for his return to himself, she reads to him from the Odyssey, and in the journey of that book, she finds a way into her former husband’s memory and the terror and trauma of war.

Instrumentation includes:

Mezzo-soprano, Guitar (electric, acoustic), 2 Violins, Viola, Violoncello, Bass, Laptop/Live Electronics, Percussion

Plus projection of drawings