“Light! Oh, Where Is the Light?”

Alternative Stage founding donor

Alternative Stage sponsor: PPC (Public Power Company)

The poetic world of the great Indian thinker Rabindranath Tagore will be unveiled through a unique concert full of rare songs inspired by his poetry. This special event will be presented on the GNO Alternative Stage at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, on Sunday 12 May, at 19:30.

The programme of the concert titled Light! Oh, Where Is the Light? will feature works by Franco Alfano, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov,  Alfredo Casella, André Caplet, John Alden Carpenter, Jean Cras, Giannis Konstantinidis, Darius Milhaud, Reginald Sweet Karol Szymanowski and Richard Hageman.

This rich and eclectic collection of musical pieces inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's poetry will be performed by a group of experienced and renowned recitalists, consisting of the soloists Lydía Zervanos and Elena Marangou, flutist Natalia Geraki, and pianist Dimitris Giakas.

Rabindranath Tagore: “the Bard of Bengal”

One of the greatest and noblest figures in the history of India, “the Bard of Bengal”, Rabindranath Tagore, was active as a poet, prose writer, playwright, composer, philosopher and painter while also having the honour of being the first non-European who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Furthermore, he stood out for his social reform action in the Indian independence movement and was a tireless traveller who visited more than 30 countries, including Greece in a historic visit in 1926.

Apart from the over 2,000 songs he composed himself, his poetry has been a source of inspiration for many composers the world over, including the Greek composer Giannis Konstantinidis, who composed the song cycle Songs of Anticipation, and many more, such as the Italians Alfredo Casella and Franco Alfano, the Polish Karol Szymanowski, the American John Alden Carpenter, the Russian Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov and the French André Caplet, who all wrote songs based on Tagore's poetry, translated into English, Italian, Russian and German.

Lydía Zervanos

Soprano, born in Athens. She studied violoncello under Marina Kislitsina and Mathias Wexler. She studied voice under the guidance of George Zervanos, as well as Jill Pearon, and completed her studies with Martha Arapis. She has graduated with honours from the European University of Cyprus, the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam (USA), as well as the Musical Horizons Conservatory and the Classical & Contemporary Music Conservatory in Athens (Greece). She was a scholarship recipient from the Greek State Scholarship Foundation and the Onassis Foundation. She is the author of the first book on Greek lyric diction and vocal repertoire for foreign singers Singing in Greek (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). She has performed title roles and premieres of works, repeatedly collaborating with orchestras and organisations such as The Beggars’ Operas, Neuköllner Oper Berlin, Athens Epidaurus Festival, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, International Festival of the Aegean, Greek National Orchestra, Athens Philharmonia Orchestra, etc. As an avid recitalist, she has presented recitals in Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States, and she has recorded live for the Third Programme of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. At the GNO she sang the leading roles in Spyros Samaras’ opera Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (GNO Foyer, 2012/13) and in Theophrastos Sakellaridis’ operetta The Possessed (GNO Foyer, 2014/15), as well as the role of Bibika in Tasos Rosopoulos’ The Wax Doll (GNO Alternative Stage, 2018/19).

Elena Marangou

She has worked with the Altstadtherbst Οrchester and the Philharmonie Düsseldorf, CoGNiMUS Collektiv, Athens State Orchestra, Armonia Atenea, Orchestra of Colours, Symphony Orchestra of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, Symphony Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki Municipalities, GNO, Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall, Athens Epidaurus Festival, etc. She has collaborated with conductors such as Helmuth Rilling, Christopher Warren-Green, Philippe Auguin, Thorsten Göbel, George Petrou, Lukas Karytinos, Miltos Logiadis, Yorgos Ziavras, Nicolas Vassiliou, etc. She has sung in Greece, Germany, Spain, UK, as well as works in world premieres. Her second album Greek Songs by Non-Greek Composers (Etcetera Records) was recently released in collaboration with the conductor and pianist Yorgos Ziavras, with songs by Berkeley, Shostakovich, Dvořák, Ravel, Reutter. She studied singing under the tutelage of Marina Krilovici (Athenaeum Conservatory, diploma), Ingeborg Danz, Aris Christofellis, Daphne Evangelatos, Mechthild Stamataki and Felicity Palmer. Besides her musical activities, she is a voice-over artist for documentaries and children’s series. She also studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the University of Surrey (UK).

http://www.elenamarangou.com

Natalia Gerakis

Internationally acclaimed flautist. She has performed at major halls and festivals throughout Germany and Greece, as well as in numerous European countries, in Asia, Africa and South America. She has been principal flute of the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra and performed among others with the Athens State Orchestra, Armonia Atenea, Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, Stuttgart State Opera. She is a tutor for Flute Methodology at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. Furthermore, she taught the flute (master’s degree programme) in the Music Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is a flute professor at the Athens Conservatoire and is invited frequently to teach in international masterclasses. She has recorded for Greek Radio & TV, the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Hellenic Foundation of Culture, Spektral Records, Utopia and Mikri Arktos. She studied music in Paris (Conservatoire Municipal Nadia & Lili Boulanger) and Stuttgart (State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart) with a scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation. She also studied Greek Civilisation at the Hellenic Open University. She is a PhD candidate at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

www.nataliagerakis.com

Dimitris Yakas

He was born in Athens and took his piano diploma from the National Conservatory (class of Myrto Mavrikou). He continued his musical studies at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, in piano, chamber music and music preparation of opera. Then he began studying music accompaniment with Dalton Baldwin. From 1982 to 1991 he worked as a pianist – musical trainer at the Paris Opera and also at the Lyon Opera after the invitation of its music director, Kent Nagano. At the same time, as a pianist, he was accompanying singers in Paris, as well as in many other cities and festivals in France. From 1990 he settled again in Athens, where he began regular collaboration with the Greek National Opera and the Athens Concert Hall. He accompanies regularly Greek and foreign singers in concerts in Greece and abroad.

The production “Light! Oh, Where Is the Light?” is part of the GNO Alternative Stage’s unit of programming titled “MUSIC THEATRE DAYS”, which falls under the ACT “FESTIVAL EVENTS OF THE GNO ALTERNATIVE STAGE 2024-2025” (MIS 6002467) with code 2024ΕΠ08570049 (Priority: “Fostering regional social cohesion through the enhancement of mechanisms and infrastructure to support employment, education, health care and socioeconomic inclusion” of the programme “Attica 2021-2027”) and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and National Resources.