For a Spring Without Limitations

Transcribed works of Bach

Percussion duet Behind Bars was created in 2018 through the collaboration of members of the Greek National Opera Orchestra Panagiotis Ziavras and Marinos Tranoudakis, with the goal of bringing out an already existing rich repertoire for two percussion instruments, and presenting new works especially written for these two particular musicians. The programme includes transcriptions of famous works of Bach, the Italian Concerto BWV 971 and the “Aria” on which Goldberg Variations BWV 988 is based. The two musicians chose these works because they remind them of a spring without limitations, but also because the cheerful sadness of the music is a reference to the drama that the planet is currently undergoing due to the coronavirus health crisis.

Two marimbas and a vibraphone have been placed at the Greek National Opera’s foyer facing the SNFCC agora. The magical sounds of percussion prepare us for the exit to a spring without limitations and serve as a perfect foil for the images of empty Athens that remind us of the lockdown days.

Video duration: 20 minutes

Ministry of Culture and Sports (www.culture.gov.gr)

1st Greek National Opera Online Festival

EXIT: SPRING

17 May – 30 June 2020

www.nationalopera.gr, GNO’s Facebook page, GNO YouTube channel

#GNOonlinefestival #exitspring

The Greek National Opera opens a new cycle of artistic programming. The first Online Festival titled EXIT: SPRING and curated by Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis spreads its wings into the digital world and invites us to a new viewing and listening experience. From 17th May to 30th June 2020, eleven new music, opera, operetta and music theatre video-performances created during the pandemic, as well as one recorded dance performance, come for free to our homes via www.nationalopera.gr, GNO’s Facebook page and GNO YouTube channel. All Festival video-performances revolve around the themes of the anticipation of spring, the rebirth of nature and the coming of the new. The Festival is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)  [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

 Responding to the challenges of the time, the Greek National Opera develops new means of creation and presentation of its work beyond the ordinary. While experiencing a new reality, whose end none of us can predict, we turn the forced absence from our standard artistic activity to a new creativity beyond norms and limitations. The first Online Festival EXIT: SPRING aims at offering friends of the GNO in Greece and across the world, a “digital” exit to this year’s lost spring, through music, dance and lyric art video-performances.

The Greek National Opera would like to thank all the artists and artistic bodies, who granted their rights for free, in order to make sure that the broadcast of these video-performances of the festival will be free to the public, in this difficult time.