Hjem

About

HJEM is a site-specific opera by cellist-composer Josefine Opsahl, staged inside Porten, the former Vridsløselille State Prison in Albertslund, Denmark. The prison’s corridors and cells become the stage, and audiences move through the building as the performance unfolds. Built from interviews with people who have experienced loneliness up close, the work is rooted in real human testimonies rather than fiction. Electronics and acoustic sources merge with the building’s resonant spaces to create what is described as a grand, moving and forceful opera-walk. A professional team of four singers and a cellist performs under the direction of Nullo Facchini, whose practice centers on large-scale, moving-audience productions and human-specific performances. Around 40 community participants form a choir of extras with genuine dramatic and musical weight, rehearsed locally in the months leading up to the festival and in intensive sessions at the site in early August.