Ministry of Culture and Sports. Free Greek National Opera broadcasts in April via ERT TV & www.nationalopera.gr/en #GNOvirtualpremieres

Aiming at bringing its artistic work closer to everyone who needs it –in this time of social distancing–, the Greek National Opera announces a new series of free broadcasts of video-recorded opera, operetta, ballet and music theatre performances in collaboration with the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), and via its homepage www.nationalopera.gr/en.

 

In April, the Greek National Opera will offer the Greek and international audience a panorama of its versatile artistic activity: from majestic opera performances at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus with international stars, including, among others, Anita Rachvelishvili, and impressive operetta, ballet and children’s opera productions presented in the Stavros Niarchos Hall, to baroque opera and music theatre from the Alternative Stage.
Wishing to bring out the therapeutic, entertaining but also educational aspect of lyric art, the Greek National Opera will stream its performances for free for all those who need it and are open to the experience of viewing and listening to a lyric masterpiece, in this difficult period of self-isolation at home.
Confirming the national character and educational dimension of both agents, the start of the Greek National Opera’s broadcast programme via the Hellenic Broadcast Corporation (ERT) will mark the inauguration of a new collaboration, which will draw upon a large archive of multi-camera video recordings of GNO performances at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus shot by ERT crews.

 

• On 11 April at 23.15 (GMT+3), one of the most famous operas in the repertoire, Bizet’s Carmen, with renowned mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili in the title role, will be broadcast on ERT2 television and online (https://webtv.ert.gr/ert2-live/).
• On 25 April at 23.00 (GMT+3) Verdi’s Nabucco, with the celebrated Greek baritone Dimitri Platanias in the title role, will be broadcast on ERT2 television and online (https://webtv.ert.gr/ert2-live/).

 

At the same time, within April, the following works will be broadcast on GNO’s homepage (www.nationalopera.gr) and YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/elsnationalopera):
the operettas Die Fledermaus (20/4), Satanerie (28/4) and The Mikado (26/4), the ballet Swan Lake (15/4), the children’s operas The Emperor’s Nightingale (24/4) and Prince Ivan and the Firebird (30/4), the baroque opera The Fairy Queen (22/4) and Dimitri Platanias’ recital (13/4). Online broadcasts will start at 20.00 (GMT+3) and each performance will remain available via the homepage of the GNO (www.nationalopera.gr/en) for 30 hours.
All the digital premieres of GNO performances will also be streamed live on GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/).
Broadcasts on ERT will have Greek subtitles. Online broadcasts will have Greek subtitles, and the productions Die Fledermaus & The Fairy Queen will also have English subtitles.

 

The high definition recording of the performances that will be broadcast online was achieved through a multi-camera system used in the framework of the Operation “Virtual Opera Premieres in the Greek Regions and online & Information about the work and the activities of the Greek National Opera through modern digital systems” that falls within the operational programme “Digital Convergence”.

 

 

Opera
Carmen – Georges Bizet
It will be broadcast on ERT2 TV on Saturday 11 April 2020 at 23.15 (GMT+3).
Parallel streaming on https://webtv.ert.gr/ert2-live/ and GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/)

 

Recorded on 31 July 2018 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Conductor Lukas Karytinos / Director Stephen Langridge
With Anita Rachvelishvili in the title role
With the Orchestra, Chorus, Soloists and the Children’s Choir of the GNO in the context of its educational mission

 

The Greek National Opera opens the series of its broadcasts on Public Television with one of the most popular operas in the repertoire – a symbol of love and freedom. Georges Bizet’s Carmen is still as provoking as it was when it was first staged in Paris 145 years ago. Carmen defends her freedom and the right to choose herself her own love partners, and not to be chosen by them. She is a threat to the male-dominated and patriarchal societies. Her choices threaten their foundations. The only solution is her destruction. It is taken over by lovestruck and “betrayed” Don José.
Director Stephen Langridge set Carmen’s story in today’s Europe of closed borders and poverty. The Greek National Opera invited for the first time in Greece the renowned mezzo-soprano of our time, Anita Rachvelishvili. With her imposing, dynamic, intense countenance and with a voice of impressive quality and volume, Rachvelishvili seems to be the character for whom the role was written. Alongside her, celebrated protagonists, such as Pavel Chernoch, Dionysis Sourbis, Maria Mitsopoulou, etc.
More information about the production is available at: https://bit.ly/Carmen_GNO

 

 

 

Concert
Dimitri Platanias’ recital
It will be broadcast on www.nationalopera.gr/en on Holy Monday 13 April 2020 at 20.00 (GMT+3) and will remain available on demand for 30 hours. Parallel streaming on GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/)

 

Recorded on 18 April 2019 in the GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall at the SNFCC.
In his first recital in the Stavros Niarchos Hall of the Greek National Opera at the SNFCC, Dimitri Platanias performed some of the most popular arias of Mozart, Rossini, Wagner, Verdi, Giordano, Massenet and songs of Verdi, Tosti, Samáras. Accompanied on the piano by Sophia Tamvakopoulou, Dimitri Platanias enraptured the audience with his unique interpretation.
More information about the production is available at: https://bit.ly/Dimitri_Platanias_Recital_GNO

 

Ballet
Swan Lake – Konstantinos Rigos / Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
It will be broadcast on www.nationalopera.gr/en on Holy Wednesday 15 April 2020 at 20.00 (GMT+3) and will remain available on demand for 30 hours. Parallel streaming on GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/)

 

Recorded on 9 November 2018 in the GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall at the SNFCC.
Conductor Elias Voudouris / Choreographer Konstantinos Rigos
With the Orchestra, Soloists, Principal Dancers and the Corps de ballet of the Greek National Opera.
Throughout the ages, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake enthrals and moves the audience, and at the same time constitutes a challenge in the career of dancers, since the virtuosic skills and lyricism required for a complete performance of the work almost exceed human limits. At the same time, it is a music work of great interpretative demands.
The Greek National Opera Ballet’s production which premiered in 2018 with a choreography by the Ballet Director Konstantinos Rigos, contrasts extensive parts of the original ballet choreography of Petipa / Ivanov, with a new choreographic take, attempting to pose questions and seek answers about how great works of the classical ballet repertoire can be offered a new reading in our time. Rigos stamped his mark on a post-modern reading and turned classical ballet into something that could be called “meta-classical”, since it engages in a conversation with the original and recontextualizes it, creating thus a new work.
The story is told through Siegfried’s eyes. The white and black swans are his own imaginary projections, which he is called upon to hunt and kill; as they are but pieces of himself, in the end, the arrow of his bow will also hit himself.
More information about the production is available at: https://bit.ly/Swan_Lake_GNO

 

 

 

 

Operetta
Die Fledermaus – Johann Strauss II
It will be broadcast on www.nationalopera.gr/en on Monday 20 April 2020 at 20.00 (GMT+3) and will remain available on demand for 30 hours. Parallel streaming on GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/)

 

Recorded on 5 March 2020 in the GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall at the SNFCC.
Conductor Yorgos Ziavras / Director Alexandros Efklidis
With the Orchestra, Chorus, Soloists of the GNO and students of the GNO Dance School
Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus is the work which marked the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Greek National Opera on 5 March 2020, since this famous operetta is the first work with which the only Greek opera house opened on 5 March 1940.
In the work, everything begins with a prank that had happened in the past: after a carnival ball Dr Falke was found drifting around in the streets in broad daylight dressed up as a bat. Responsible for this prank was Gabriel von Eisenstein, with whom Falke decides to get even during a ball given by Russian prince Orlofsky. Plenty of champagne and masks keep the spirits up, carrying away the protagonists in a series of misunderstandings. For different reasons everyone ends up in prison, where the truth is finally revealed.
Despite the fact that Die Fledermaus is considered as the most typical and most famous Viennese operetta, it exceeds the stereotypes of the genre; it is not just a patchwork of waltzes, mazurkas and polkas –which Strauss could so easily compose–; it has managed to develop structures capable of supporting a comic opera. The highly successful production, directed by Alexandros Efklidis moves the work’s action to the bourgeois living-rooms of Athens and the cabanas of the Astir Resort in Vouliagmeni, during the ’60s.
Die Fledermaus was conducted by the up-and-coming maestro Yorgos Ziavras, and in the leading roles we will have the chance to enjoy Dimitris Paksoglou, Eleni Calenos, Artemis Bogri, Vassiliki Karayanni, Vassilis Kavayas, Yannis Selitsaniotis, etc.
More information about the production is available at: https://bit.ly/Die_Fledeurmaus_GNO

Baroque opera
The Fairy Queen – Henry Purcell
It will be broadcast on www.nationalopera.gr/en on Wednesday 22 April at 20.00 (GMT+3) and will remain available on demand for 30 hours.

 

Recorded on 12 May 2018 on the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC.
Conductor Markellos Chryssicos / Director Yannis Skourletis / bijoux de kant / With the participation of the Early Music Ensemble Latinitas Nostra, the Athens Municipal Choir and the GNO Soloists
Henry Purcell’s masterly opera The Fairy Queen, conducted by Markellos Chrysikos and directed by Yannis Skourletis / bijoux de kant received enthusiastic reviews by audience and critics in one of the GNO Alternative Stage’s greatest successes (April-May 2018).
The performance sets the action in the Arcadian woods. The protagonists are two young people in love, Daphne and Apollo. Together they will be lost one night in the woods, where they will be carried away in mystic rituals, and will finally end up in a majestic union. Yannis Skourletis and bijoux de kant created an enchanting visual universe with old sounds and new costumes which takes the audience on a journey through an Arcadia of unfulfilled desires.
More information about the production is available at:
https://bit.ly/The_Fairy_Queen_GNO

Animated opera for children
The Emperor’s Nightingale – Lena Platonos
It will be broadcast on www.nationalopera.gr/en on Friday 24 April 2020 at 20.00 (GMT+3) and will remain available on demand for 30 hours. Parallel streaming on GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/)

 

Recorded on 3 November 2019 in the GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall at the SNFCC.
Libretto Giorgos Voloudakis / Director Katerina Petsatodi
A unique work by Lena Platonos, based on Andersen’s fairy tale of the same title, became an animated opera by the Greek National Opera. Lena Platonos, whose work has been associated with the world of children through the legendary Lilipoupoli, wrote The Emperor’s Nightingale as a melodious parable about the uneven relationship between technology and man. It is a work of rare beauty and sensitivity in an impressive production, in which opera becomes accessible to children through animation, creating a new, magical and exciting world. The work’s modern message, the co-existence of analog and electronic music, natural and artificial sound, the ingenious use of animation and live performance, the melodic lines of Lena Platonos and the masterly vocal writing render The Emperor’s Nightingale an ideal means of introducing children to the magical world of lyric art.
More information about the production is available at:
https://bit.ly/The_emperors_nightingale_GNO

Opera
Nabucco – Giuseppe Verdi
It will be broadcast on ERT2 TV on Saturday 25 April 2020 at 23.00 (GMT+3)
Parallel streaming on https://webtv.ert.gr/ert2-live/ and GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/)

 

Recorded on 6 June 2018 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Conductor Philippe Auguin / Director Leo Muscato
With Dimitri Platanias in the title role
With the Orchestra, Chorus and Soloists of the GNO
Nabucco ranks among Giuseppe Verdi’s greatest operas. On a personal level, it established Verdi as the most influential Italian composer of the 19th century, and on a collective level it became a symbol of the struggle for the unification of Italy. The story is about the captivity of the Jews under the king of Babylon Nabucodonosor. In his arrogance, when he asks of everyone to bow to him as if he were God, a crash of thunder makes him lose his senses. When he acknowledges Jehovah as the only true God, he regains his sanity, frees the Jews and gives his consent to the relationship of his true daughter Fenena with Ismaele, nephew of the king of Jerusalem. In the end, Abigaille, who usurped Nabucco’s power, also turns to Jehovah. The opera is famous, among others, for the well-known Chorus of the Hebrew slaves, that served as a national anthem for the Italians, as it expressed the collective feeling of opposition against the Austrian conquerors.
In this GNO production, directed by the distinguished Italian composer Leo Muscato, “the tragedy of the Jews that were deported and enslaved is reminiscent of the tragedy of the Nazi concentration camps on the one hand, and on the other hand it seems a lot like the tortures practised in modern detention camps, like Guantanamo”, as the director writes in his note.
The title role was performed by the famous Greek baritone Dimitri Platanias, who has excelled as Nabucco on prestigious stages all over the world. Alongside him, Sae-Kyung Rim, Riccardo Zanellato, Elena Cassian, etc. The production is conducted by the famous conductor Philippe Auguin.
More information about the production is available at:
https://bit.ly/Nabucco_GNO

 
Operetta
The Mikado – Gilbert and Sullivan
It will be broadcast on www.nationalopera.gr/en on Sunday 26 April 2020 at 20.00 (GMT+3) and will remain available on demand for 30 hours. Parallel streaming on GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/)

 

Recorded on 30 December 2017 on the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC.
Conductor – Orchestration Michalis Papapetrou / Director Akyllas Karazisis / With the participation of a six-member instrumental ensemble
In December 2018, and for a run of eight performances, the comic opera The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, the forerunners of Monty Python and Marx Brothers, enthused the audience and critics in a highly successful production that guaranteed plenty of laughter. The creators of The Mikado, William Schwenck Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, drew inspiration from the atmospheric Far East to compose an acerbic satire on the socio-political mores of the 19th century. In the magical land of Titipu where the Great Emperor (the Mikado) had banned flirting, philandering tailors become executioners so that they don’t have to behead themselves, parliamentary deputies declare themselves “masters of everything”, and flirting, although banned, flourishes in the most unimaginable forms. A co-production of the Alternative Stage with the Music Theatre Company Rafi. Conducted and orchestrated by Michalis Papapetrou and directed by Akyllas Karazisis.
More information about the production is available at:
https://bit.ly/The_Mikado_GNO

 

Operetta
Satanerie  – Theophrastos Sakellaridis
It will be broadcast on www.nationalopera.gr/en on Tuesday 28 April 2020 at 20.00 (GMT+3) and will remain available on demand for 30 hours. Parallel streaming on GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/).

 

Recorded on 19 May 2020 on the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC.
Conductor – Restoration of music material Kharálampos Goyós / Directors Alexandros Efklidis, Dimitris Dimopoulos / With the vocal ensemble chórεs, an 18-member music ensemble and the GNO Soloists
The caustic humour of Theophrastos Sakellaridis, creator of the Godson [O Vaftistikos], the most famous Greek operetta, spares no one! Something like a twisted adaptation of Faust, the operetta Satanerie is a moralizing work that shamelessly praises… the superiority of hell to paradise and advocates, as boldly and ironically as Mahagonny, the benefits of modern immorality over traditional ethics! Sakellaridis mixes romantic arias with traditional songs, urban folk songs [rebetika], blues and fox trot, and satirizes the Greek impunity through the story of Andreas, a poor man “selling on credit”; when he finds himself at the crossroads between Virtue and Vice, he chooses the second path, after a private tour to the other world by… Satan himself! The production, conducted by Kharálampos Goyós and directed by Alexandros Efklidis and Dimitris Dimopoulos, restored for the first time the original orchestration of 1930.
More information about the production is available at: https://bit.ly/Satanerie_GNO

Opera for children
Prince Ivan and the Firebird – Thodoris Abazis
It will be broadcast on www.nationalopera.gr/en on Thursday 30 April 2020 at 20.00 (GMT+3) and will remain available on demand for 30 hours. Parallel streaming on GNO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/greeknationalopera/).

 

Recorded on 30 December 2017 on the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC.
Composer – Director Thodoris Abazis / Conductor Michalis Papapetrou / With the participation of a six-member instrumental ensemble and the Soloists of the GNO
An exciting musical fairy tale with wonderful melodies, colourful sets, impressive costumes and a strong streak of humour, in a high-profile production. Based on a well-known fairy tale that also inspired Igor Stravinsky’s famous ballet, Prince Ivan and the Firebird, the first opera for children and young people commissioned by the GNO Alternative Stage, tells the story of Prince Ivan’s journey through the Black Forest of the Sorcerer-King Koschei. With the help of Volk the wolf, he seeks out the golden Firebird to prove to his father that he is worth becoming the next Czar.
The opera for children and young audiences Prince Ivan and the firebird of composer and director Thodoris Abazis based on a libretto by Sofianna Theofanous enthralled children and adults when it was presented on the GNO Alternative Stage for a series of successful performances (October 1917 – January 2018), and served as an ideal means of introducing child audiences to the wonderful world of opera.
More information about the production is available at: https://bit.ly/Prince_ivan_and_the_firebird_GNO

 

 

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STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION