Kassandra

Alternative Stage founding donor & production donor 

Alternative Stage sponsor: PPC (Public Power Company)

The production is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

The GNO Alternative Stage opens the 2024/25 season with the daring, contemporary chamber opera Kassandra by the distinguished Argentinian composer Pablo Ortiz and a libretto by the renowned Uruguayan dramaturg Sergio Blanco. Kassandra is an international co-production with the Centro de Experimentación of the prestigious Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. On 27, 28, and 29 September 2024, Kassandra will meet the Athenian audience at the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC, a month after its world premiere at Teatro Colón, where it caused a sensation, receiving rave reviews. As the largest newspaper in Argentina, Clarín, characteristically wrote: “Kassandra’s legend takes on a new dimension in an exceptional opera filled with emotional power and tension”. The transgender soprano Maria Castillo de Lima, a phenomenal vocal talent, will take on the leading role, with direction from Diana Theocharidis and Alexandros Efklidis. With the participation of musicians from Ergon Ensemble, under the baton of Nicolas Vassiliou.

The GNO Alternative Stage and the Centro de Experimentación of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires commissioned Pablo Ortiz to adapt Sergio Blanco’s monologue Kassandra into an opera. The leading character, Kassandra, is destined to wander at night on the outskirts of a nameless city in search of clients. Through the music, she blends the terrible with the sublime, the profane with the sacred, the contemporary with the ancient, and the myth with the present. She also pairs the dramaturg’s aesthetic with the composer’s, illustrating their joint work on the ever-shifting interplay of past, present, and future. Although so far apart, these universes are included in a single space, according to the directorial concept of Diana Theocharidis and Alexandros Efklidis.

“I am not a man, I am not a woman, I am Kassandra”

Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco, one of the most fascinating and intriguing voices in the contemporary global theatre scene, wrote Kassandra in Athens in 2008. Inspired by the legend of Kassandra, he wrote a heart-wrenching monologue. In this modern adaptation, the famous heroine from Troy is transformed into a transgender immigrant. Feeling like a foreigner in her own body, she tells her story in broken English, expressing her feelings of solitude, isolation, and the desire to be understood. The play had an amazing run, showcased over thirty times across five continents. It was held in various venues, from alternative theaters to prestigious stages like Le Palais des Papes in Avignon, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and the Greek National Opera. “My text Kassandra was a veritable archaeological undertaking, in that from the outset I tried to unearth the myth in an attempt to understand it. I have never tried to explain our present from the myth. Quite the opposite: by starting from our time, I have sought to understand this myth which speaks to us in enigmatic terms of love and death, desire, violence, war... When I began writing this text in Athens, the first question I asked myself as I walked along Omonoia Square was: in the dark times we live in today, what could be better than to give the floor to a foreigner who, out of her own clandestine existence, uses language in complete freedom, without submitting to any linguistic, moral or cultural constraints? That's how I came to give life to this Kassandra, who is no longer a prisoner of one genre or another but is taking her freedom into her own hands. You'll see that this Kassandra has no passport, and that allows her to walk through any gate, including the gate of death. In the end, Kassandra is not a prisoner of any era. To listen to Kassandra is to understand that the freedom that defines her is not an ideal to be pursued but a construction that she has forged with such beauty. Just as Flaubert was wont to say that Madame Bovary was himself, I'd like to be able to say: “Kassandra is me” notes Sergio Blanco.  

The chamber opera Kassandra carries the signature of the award-winning Argentinian composer Pablo Ortiz, who is a professor of composition and music theory at the University of California, Davis, and has made a significant contribution to modern music. The opera, which will be presented on the GNO Alternative Stage conducted by Nicolas Vassiliou and featuring musicians from Ergon Ensemble, is tailored to the unique voice of transgender soprano Maria Castillo de Lima, famous for her groundbreaking career in the sphere of opera.  The composer notes: "Kassandra sees the future and the past at once and lives a present informed by such visions. The music, conversely, alludes to distinct operatic traditions and includes rapping, spoken texts, and bel canto singing, in a tour de force that showcases the talents of our diva. The orchestration is sparse, with a few distinct colors framing the voice. Vibraphone, strings, and bass clarinet with some touches of electronics provide a limited and yet surprisingly varied accompaniment. I intended to write a piece accessible to the average opera lover, featuring the unique qualities of Maria’s voice and her extraordinary dramatic versatility". 

Buenos Aire – Athens

The opera Kassandra's stage direction is credited to Diana Theocharidis, a Greek individual who currently resides and works in Buenos Aires, and Alexandros Efklidis. The two directors have created a performance about the modern challenges of identity and acceptance, telling the story of a woman who possesses the gift of prophecy but is condemned not to be believed by anyone. “Kassandra, the cursed priestess of ancient Greek mythology, possesses the gift of foreseeing the future. However, like all the oracles of the ancient Greek world, she also sees the past; the oracle’s insight encompasses both the present and the absent. Given the gift of prophecy, Kassandra was cursed by the god Apollo for her words to not to be believed by anyone. Inside her, there is inherent both the tragic fate of humanity and that of the stranger, the refugee and the socially and gender marginalised. She sings and speaks in broken English, the English of someone who hardly knows the language and is driven by the desire to be understood.”, note the directors.

From a tenor to a soprano

The operatic role of Kassandra found its perfect embodiment in the Brazilian transgender soprano Maria Castillo de Lima, a performer with an exceptionally wide vocal range. Born in Sao Paolo, Brazil, she moved to Argentina, where she carved out a career in music. Although she was initially singing in the tenor range, she switched to soprano after her gender transition, becoming the first transgender singer to perform as a soprano at the historical Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Her career is marked by her extraordinary vocal skills and persistence, which make her a source of inspiration for the transgender community. Despite her humble beginnings – her father was a construction worker and her mother used to sing at the church – Maria started learning music at an early age, and was even given the nickname "Little Mozart” due to her exceptional music skills. She joined the choir of the Teatro Colón as a tenor in 2010 and later transitioned to soprano in 2019, an achievement that marked both her personal and professional trajectory. “I do not look back on the past in pain. I see it as a time that helped shape the person I am today, both personally and artistically”, she said in a big tribute to her work, which was published in the New York Times.

The lighting design for the opera Kassandra carries the signature of Gonzalo Córdova while in charge of the costumes is Luciana Gutman.

With the participation of musicians from Ergon ensemble: Kostas Tzekos (bass clarinet), Charalampos Taliadouros (percussion), Konstantinos Panagiotidis (violin), and Dimitris Travlos (violoncello).

* The world premiere of the opera Cassandra took place on 22 August 2024 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires