Syrigana is marked by historical erasure and political fragmentation. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the end of the war in Kosovo, the National Philharmonic also celebrates its first quarter-century. Petrit Halilaj’s first opera brings together professional artists, villagers, musicians, folkloric traditions, and contemporary art in a temporary collective project that asserts the relevance of culture in peripheral places.
The project extends Halilaj’s engagement with the House of Culture in Runik—a site for Albanian-language cultural life in the 1960s, later shuttered and destroyed in the war. Syrigana, still in ruins, continues this process of reconstruction, not as nostalgia, but as rehearsal for future forms of common life.
Fig.1
Staged with the Kosovo Philharmonic, Syrigana is the institution’s first commissioned opera. Performed on tractor-trailers on a rocky plateau below Gjyteti, the site of a Bronze Age settlement, the work evokes 1970s traveling theater troupes. The scenography, partly developed during Halilaj’s residency at the Paris Opera, remains grounded in his sculptural practice and features bird costumes, flags, and masks left in the landscape.
Written with Doruntina Basha, Robert Schulz, and Amy Zion, and composed by Lugh O’Neill with contributions by Nina Guo, the opera unfolds as a queer allegory of love and community. Fox and Rooster arrive in Syrigana seeking a place to live and wed. The libretto—shifting between Albanian, English, and an invented bird language—draws on local myths, including one in which Adam and Eve, expelled from Eden, come to Syrigana only to find it already inhabited.
Fig.2
Although theatrical, the work remains strongly tied to the political and historical realities of a village where Albanian and Serbian communities coexist side by side without direct interaction. The opera does not propose reconciliation through fiction, but stages the contradictions and aspirations of a fragmented collective subjectivity.
The archaeological site—partially excavated in 2022—bears traces of 3,500 years of human activity. Enjoying only temporary protection, it is threatened by looting and quarrying. Halilaj’s opera calls for preservation not through appeal, but through use and presence.
Personal memory grounds the work: Halilaj’s mother was born in Syrigana, and he spent his school years there with relatives. He recalls kanagjegjs (bachelorette parties) where women sang laments—a formative encounter with performance and the roots of theatre.
Fig.3
Premiering in May during the region’s elderflower bloom, the opera began with a gathering at the çajtore (teahouse) between the village’s two communities. A nightfall procession led the audience uphill, tambourines and golden flags guiding the way.
The acts unfold: the arrival of Fox and Rooster; a brief moment in paradise, then a fall; nuptial plans and then an unraveling; lastly, a final affirmation of staying together.
Syrigana will be reprised at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, in a spatial installation curated by Catherine Nichols. The scenographic elements and recorded opera remain open to visitors, recapturing the distant village on a summer night. Syrigana asks how cultural memory forms in the absence of institutions, and how art can inhabit ruins not as an act of mourning, but as an impetus for potential.
Petrit Halilaj. An Opera Out of Time. September 11, 2025 – May 31, 2026
Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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- Images
Cover, Fig.1/2/3: Syrigana: An Opera in Five Acts, conceived and directed by Petrit Halilaj, performed in Syrigana, Kosovo, June 29, 2025. Image courtesy the artist. Photo by Arben Llapashtica
