Visualising the Voice of Maria Callas

Lead Donor of the GNO & Maria Callas Tribute Donor

Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)

The Visualising the Voice of Maria Callas installation opens on Thursday, 7 December 2023 at 17.00 inside the Greek National Opera Foyer at the SNFCC. It comprises five new experimental virtual reality installations developed as part of the workshop of the same title organised by the Greek National Opera in partnership with the Digital Media Lab (DmLab) at the Technical University of Crete. This installation will be open to the public daily, 17.00 - 21.00, and for free, through until 21 December. The GNO Maria Callas Tribute programme is sponsored by the PPC (Public Power Corporation). This programme is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the GNO’s artistic outreach.

This installation focuses on exploring the long-standing relationship between architecture and music through an experimental approach that makes use of virtual reality tools. The ten select participants –under the guidance of the artist Georgios Cherouvim, and the tutors, researchers, and students of the Digital Media Lab (DmLab) at the Technical University of Crete School of Architecture– experiment with sounds drawn from specific opera excerpts performed by Maria Callas to mark the centennial anniversary of her birth.

These five experimental virtual reality installations seek to visualise interactions of space and sound – specifically, the ways in which the Stavros Niarchos Hall is transformed when the voice of Maria Callas is heard, in excerpts from such operas as Bellini’s Norma, Puccini’s Tosca, and Verdi’s La traviata.

The pioneering educational workshop titled Visualising the Voice of Maria Callas was launched as part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the GNO and the Technical University of Crete, and follows on from the “Interactive 3D Model of the Main Stage and Backstage Areas of the Greek National Opera” research project. Following their installation inside the GNO Foyer at the SNFCC, these creations are to be presented in digital form on GNO TV, and then inside an exhibition space in Chania, Crete in the spring of 2024.

This installation is included in the Greek National Opera tribute programme marking the centennial of Maria Callas’ birth – part of the 2023 UNESCO Maria Callas Anniversary proposed by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. The GNO’s Maria Callas Tribute programme is curated by its Artistic Director, Giorgos Koumendakis.

Technical equipment kindly provided by

Music rights courtesy of Cobalt

TouchDesigner software kindly provided by Derivative