The Heavenly City

Entrance to the Presidential Garden Mansion will be through Β2 Vasileos Georgiou Street, where visitors will need to present their ID card.  You are kindly requested to arrive early at the venue, at least 20 minutes prior to the start of the performance.

War is the father of everything. A large group of children takes refuge within a prayer dome located in the Presidential Mansion Garden. They are working through their pain and passions, confronting the challenges of the dark, earthly forces, until they can finally gaze at the light and experience the final defeat of death through Resurrection. The blood of the saints ran through the earth, making it puff up like dough. Two adult singers / parent-angels and the children of the world: the journey from one place to the Other, from disaster to redemption. I saw the Virgin Mary in black, crying. Stop killing us. — Lena Platonos

Ι. Heaven and Fall Agnus Dei
ΙΙ. The Serpent's Generation 
ΙΙΙ.  Agnus Dei
IV. In the Heavenly City

BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Lena Platonos 

Born in Heraklion, Crete, she grew up in Athens. She started playing piano from a very young age, and then took lessons from her father. He studied at the Athens Conservatoire and in 1963 she won the first prize of the Katy Papaioannou Competition. She left with a scholarship to study in Vienna and Berlin, where he came to know rock, jazz and oriental music. He returned to Greece during the dictatorship, left again in 1975 to Berlin and returned in 1978, where she began collaboration with the Third Program of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, met Manos Hadjidakis and participated in the production of the show Edo Lilipoupoli, writing lyrics and music in some of the most popular songs such as "Roza-Rozalia" and "O choros ton bizelion". Her discography debut was the album Sabotage (1981), in collaboration with Marianina Kriezi, Savina Yannatou and Yannis Palamidas. The disc was characterized as pioneering for Greek standards, both for the composition and lyricism as well as for the intense use of the synthesizer. Since then other personal records have been released, with a clear shift towards electronic music and heavy use of keyboards. She has also written music for theatre, dance theatres, television, etc.

Vangelis Kosmidis

Konstantina Pitsiakou
A graduate of the Music Department of the University of Cardiff (Wales), she studied with a scholarship methodology of teaching, chorus conducting, classical singing and piano at the International Pedagogical Institute Zoltán Kodály (Franz Liszt Academy, Kecskemét, Hungary). Moreover, in Athens she studied singing (diploma) with Christina Yannakopoulou. She has sung with the Patras Contemporary Music Ensemble and the String Quartet of the Municipal Conservatory of Patras, while she has given concerts of Early music with the ensembles Ex Silentio and Os Orphicum. She has collaborated with the Choruses of the GNO and the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, as well as with the Patras Municipal Conservatory Chamber Chorus. She is a member of the Equábili vocal ensemble. She has taught at the Municipal Conservatory of Patras, as well as at the Drama Schools of the National Theatre of Greece and the Patras Municipal and Regional Theatre. Since September 2017 she is the mistress of the GNO Children’s Chorus with numerous productions at the Stavros Niarchos Hall and the Alternative Stage, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Athens Concert Hall.

Myrtò Bocolini

Greek soprano, she was born in Athens. She studied at the Department of Communication, Media and Culture of Panteion University, Athens, acting at the Theatre School of George Kimoulis, and voice at the Nikos Skalkottas Conservatory. During 2007-10 she cooperated with the Greek National Opera singing roles at the Children’s Stage and in operetta productions. She made her debut under Laurent Pillot in Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Dardanus. In 2011 she continued her studies at the Opera Studio of Teatro Carlo Felice, Genova. She has received awards and distinctions in many international opera competitions in Italy and France. Based at Torre del Lago, where she completed her studies at the 60th Puccini Festival Academy in 2013, she performed in prestigious Italian theatres soloist roles in such operas as Don Giovanni, Pagliacci, Tosca, Suor Angelica, Il tabarro and Mascagni’s Zanetto. She has given concerts in Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.The last years she has been living in Greece, where she participates in numerous productions of the Greek National Opera.

Nicolas Karagiaouris
Greek baritone, he graduated from the Athens Conservatory. He has been awarded in Greek and international competitions and has performed at the Vienna State Opera, at the Salle Cortot (Paris) and in China. He has sung a wide range of roles such as Frank (Die Fledermaus), Polyphemus (Acis and Galatea), Father (Hänsel und Gretel), Toreador (Carmen), Bartolo (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Count Ceprano (Rigoletto), Marquis d’Obigny (La traviata), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), King of Egypt (Aida). As a performer of Greek music theatre, musical and operetta he has sung such roles as Inquisitor (Demons), Jupiter (Trojan War), Cloud (The Bells of Edelweiss), Colonel (The Godson), Singer (Clara Schumann: The Charismatic Persons of a Super Marionette), Jack (The Steadfast Tin Soldier), Beast (Beauty and the Beast). Furthermore he sings works of the Russian national music school. He cooperates often with the Embassy of France in Athens, promoting the French and the Greek poetic and music composition.

Children’s Chorus of the Greek National Opera

The Children’s Chorus of the Greek National Opera was founded in September 2012. It has an exclusively educational character and its goals, among others, are the study of choral singing, the cultivation of the wider musical education of its members and the development of the feeling of partnership and cooperation. Till today, the GNO Children’s Chorus has participated to great acclaim in numerous productions of the Greek National Opera in such venues as Olympia Theatre, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Alexandra Trianti Hall (Athens Concert Hall), Stavros Niarchos Hall and Alternative Hall of the GNO (SNFCC), etc and has given numerous concerts, performing a very extensive repertoire, at the Presidential Mansion, the Acropolis Museum, the Pnyx, the Archaeological site of Brauron (Vravrona), the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, etc. The Children’s Chorus’ first mistress was soprano Mata Katsouli. Since autumn 2017, the ensemble has been directed by Konstantina Pitsiakou. The Chorus consists of about one hundred children aged 6 to 15 years old from all Attica.