​Philomela was first performed in September 2004 in Oporto by Remix Ensemble, Anu Komsi (Philomela), Susan Narucki (Procne), Lionel Peintre (Tereus), conducted by Jurjen Hempel, and was subsequently produced in Strasbourg, Paris and Budapest.​ Winner of the Grand Prix de l’Académie du Disque Lyrique 2010.

 

Philomela is inspired by the myth which explains the origins of the nightingale’s mournful song; the nightingale was originally a woman who killed her own child. Tereus, the king of Thrace, married Procne, the daughter of an Athenian king. After several years of marriage, which included the birth of their son Itys, Procne wanted to see her sister, Philomela. Tereus went to Athens to collect her, but on the return journey he raped Philomela and cut her tongue out to prevent her speaking the truth. However, Philomela was able to reveal the truth through a piece of weaving: ‘the voice of the loom’. The sisters took a sinister revenge on Tereus. Procne killed Itys and fed him to Tereus. When he realized what had happened, he intended to kill the two women. But the gods intervened and changed all three into birds. The story of Philomela was the subject of a late, unfinished play by Sophocles of which only small fragments remain.