Strella Strella
Alternative Stage
Strella
SEASON 2023/24 - Michalis Paraskakis
October & November 2023
Δημιουργική Ομάδα

Libretto:
Alexandra K*, based on Panos H. Koutras’ film of the same title

Conductor:
Konstantinos Terzakis

Stage director:
George Koutlis

Set designer:
Eva Manidaki

Costume designer:
Ioanna Tsami

Movement coach, choreographer:
Fenia Apostolou

Lighting designer:
Nikos Vlasopoulos

Music coaches:
Frixos MortzosMaria Neofytidou

Πρωταγωνιστές Παράστασης

Letta Kappa (Strella), Anastasia Kotsali (Callas), Michalis Psyrras (Yorgos), Ioanna Zam-Petrou (Mary), Nikos Spanatis (Alex), Victoria Tsitouridou-Maya (Wilma), Nikos Ziaziaris (Antonis, 1st Cop, Yuri), Nicolas Maraziotis (Nikos, 2nd Cop), Nina Naï (Drag performer), George Roupas (Kouloukousis), Alexandros Stavropoulos (Squirrel), Christina Kyriaki / Dido Papanikolaou (Child)

Ana Chifu (flute), Antonis Tsachtanis (clarinet), Guido de Flaviis (saxophone), George Krimperis (trombone), Kazuyo Tsunehiro (percussion), Mislav Režić (electric guitar), Christos Sakellaridis (piano), Artemis Vavatsika (bayan), Fani Vovoni  (18, 20, 21, 22, 25/10) / Alexis Theofylaktou (27, 29/10, 2, 3, 4/11) (violin), Charis Pazaroulas (double bass)

 

 

Ticket prices: €15, €20
Students: €10

Suitable for persons aged 17 and over

Alternative Stage
Opera

Strella

Michalis Paraskakis

Opera • GNO commission • Revival

Greek National Opera Alternative Stage
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center 

Starts at: 20.30 (Sunday: 19.30 

YPPO RGB EN 01

 

Alternative Stage founding donor

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Panos H. Koutras’ stunning, multi-award-winning film Strella (2009), a milestone in modern Greek cinema, becomes a chamber opera commissioned by the Greek National Opera from composer Michalis Paraskakis. An emblematic film about the visibility of trans people and the LGTBQ+ community in Greece and abroad inspires for the first time a Greek operatic work.

The new chamber opera Strella with a libretto by Alexandra K* and conducted by Konstantinos Terzakis, returns, through the fresh subversive eye of sought-after theatre director George Koutlis, to the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC. The roles of Strella, Mary and Wilma are performed respectively by the transgender artists Letta Kappa, Ioanna Zam-Petrou and Victoria Tsitouridou-Maya, returning to the operatic stage.

The opera treats the meeting between Yorgos, a 48-year-old man newly released from prison, and Strella, a young trans sex worker who idolises Maria Callas. The future seems open for both of them for the first time after a very long time. However, as Yorgos’ accounts with the past are far from closed, his history comes back to haunt him. Together with Strella, they must find a way to redemption.

The cinematic story of Strella, as unfolded in Panos H. Koutras and Panagiotis Evangelidis’ script, seems to have all the marks of a realist music drama, as it leans upon Ancient Greek tragedy with direct allusions to the myth of Oedipus and in terms of operatic verismo.

Thirteen years later, the film’s subject remains as topical as it was in the time it was first released. In contemporary reality, where boldness and truth are absolutely necessary, the film’s characters, and subsequently those of the opera too, are not treated as caricatures but as persons who fall in love, love and experience pain.

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