Taschenoper Lübeck has been dedicated to music theatre for children for a decade now. In its productions, the young people in the audience are never just spectators but are invited to actively join in the musical and other action on the stage. And so they find themselves as actors in a well-known myth and as contemporaries of Odysseus, the hero of antiquity, whose wanderings take him to the here and now. Librettist Margrit Dürr has shifted the plot to the present: escaping the war in Troy, thousands of people flee along with Odysseus to his home, the Ionian island of Ithaca. But the locals there fear for their prosperity, which leads Odysseus to go in search of a new home for the refugees. Accompanied by a large group of people, he sets out on another extraordinary journey full of adventures. Because even today the world is full of temptations, scary monsters and volatile sorceresses. Like his ancient ancestor, Odysseus encounters Sirens, a Cyclops and Circe...

Singers and a puppeteer join forces to make the Odyssey palpable as a recurring experience of humankind in the Taschenoper production. The wanderings are accompanied by music from different worlds and times, featuring extracts from madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi and his opera “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria” as well as contemporary compositions by musician Katia Tchemberdji from Moscow. Sounding experiences of the home country and foreign lands alternate with early and new music, performed by the lautten compagney Berlin.