Blessed Are the Breasts That Never Gave Suck…

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Major Sponsor of the Greek National Opera

The reverent performance of the work Blessed Are the Breasts That Never Gave Suck…, based on the pieces Via Crucis by Franz Liszt and The Way of the Cross by Paul Claudel, which premiered as part of the 2nd Sacred Music Festival in April 2024, will be revived on the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC. This production, commissioned by the GNO, conceived and conducted by Markellos Chryssicos, adapted and arranged by Panos Iliopoulos, and featuring Karyofyllia Karabeti in the role of the narrator, will be presented for two unique evenings on 1 and 2 March 2025.

The Way of the Cross (Via Crucis), also known as the Path of Martyrdom, is a pilgrimage route that captures in the faithful's memory the journey of Christ from the Praetorium to the Holy Sepulchre. This route can be taken literally in Jerusalem or other designated places of worship, but it is also customary for it to have a purely symbolic character, with the faithful, following the iconography or narrative, having the opportunity to pray and spiritually walk the road to Calvary and the Crucifixion.

Franz Liszt's late composition Via Crucis (1874-79) for soloists, mixed choir and organ references the fourteen intervening Stations that the Western Church tradition has established. In conductor Markellos Chryssicos' approach, the work, transcribed for soloists, clarinet, two keyboards and string quintet by Panos Iliopoulos, enters into a dialogue with Paul Claudel's poem of the same name and texts by Giannis Antiochos, Argyris Ant. Liolios, Refaat Alarir, and Tasos Livaditis, read by the actress Karyofyllia Karabeti. The piece will be performed by Maria Kostraki, Theodora Baka, Christos Kechris, and Marios Sarantidis.

The performance Blessed Are the Breasts That Never Gave Suck…, a sacramental synergy of narrative speech, music, and opera singing, revolves around the parallels drawn between divine and human Passions, while conveying the message of hope, love, and faith to the audience. Conductor Markellos Chryssicos, who conceived the idea for this performance and is responsible for its dramaturgy in collaboration with Karofyllia Karabeti, notes: “When I decided to create a performance about the route to Crucifixion – Via Crucis –, I had already read and knew a lot about Liszt’s relevant composition and Claudel’s text of the same title, yet I was completely unaware of the pieces themselves. The only thing I had in my possession to help me was a book by a man named Argyris Liolios titled “Stories From the Land of the Irrational”. I had found it deserted, or so I thought, in the library of a friendly lounge, and so I impulsively took it home like one takes in a stray kitten from the street. On my way back, I realized that this particular kitten was much more tormented than its weary fur suggested. As it turned out, what I was reading was a series of short yet heartbreaking stories from the chamber of a neurosurgical clinic, whose realism and vividness only made them even more heart-wrenching, resembling a journey or rather a wandering towards Calvary, marked by catheters, urine, bribery, enemas…. and pain”.

Regarding Via Crucis’ new adaptation and arrangement, Panos Iliopoulos remarks:“In his work Via Crucis, Franz Liszt seems to reinvent the concept of ecclesiastical music by creating a modular piece that features a wide variety of elements, from Gregorian chants and Bach-inspired chorales to the most extreme boundaries of his own musical language, pointing the way towards modernism.

In this new adaptation/arrangement of the work, I tried to stay true to this unique – both eclectic and experimental – language. Any compositional interventions made were only meant to support the dialogue between Liszt’s music and the texts selected and edited by Karyofyllia Karabeti and Markellos Chryssicos, with a primary focus on The Way of the Cross by French poet Paul Claudel.

The original piece's choir is transformed into an ensemble of four singers (Maria Kostraki, Theodora Baka, Christos Kechris, Marios Sarantidis) who alternate roles, sometimes serving as a chorus and other times as soloists. The instrumental ensemble consists of an organ and a piano, complemented by the sound of a string quintet and a clarinet, which together enhance the expressive potential and underscore the dramaturgy of both the music and the text. “

Co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and National Resources.