The Assembly of Animals

The Assembly of Animals – Giorgos Kouroupos

The music fairy tale The Assembly of Animals with music by Giorgos Kouroupos and lyrics by Pericles Korovessis is performed by internationally acclaimed Greek baritone Tassis Christoyannis, accompanied on the piano by Nicolas Vassiliou. Animals are anxiously looking for a new leader. They create him themselves and, as all of them want him to represent them, each one offers him as a gift one of their properties. The result however is much different than what they expected. They create man and quickly regret it.

The assembly of animals is a great landmark in Giorgos Kouroupos’ career as a composer, as it is a highly demanding work, with unique melodies, references to Debussy and a rare setting to music of recently departed Pericles Korovessis’ exceptionally popular children’s book. It is an ingenious fairy tale that speaks to children and adults in an almost political language about the important matters of life and human nature.

Tassis Christoyannis gives a totally new, personal interpretation to the work, with great theatricality and exceptional utterance. Aiming at speaking to the heart of the children of our time, the GNO commissioned Eirini Vianelli to create from scratch a new animation for this fairy tale, after her extraordinary work on The Emperor’s Nightingale.

Video duration: 24 minutes

Subtitles: Greek, English

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.