Ministry of Culture and Sports: The GNO free broadcasts continue with great success.

 

The broadcast schedule will continue up to 30th of April with the following productions:

Wednesday 22/4 > 20.00: The Fairy Queen on nationalopera.gr
Friday 24/4 > 20.00: The Emperor’s Nightingale on nationalopera.gr
Saturday 25/4 > 23.00: Nabuccο on ΕRT2 TV, ERT’s WEBTV & on nationalopera.gr
Sunday 26/4 > 20.00: The Mikado on nationalopera.gr
Tuesday 28/4 > 20.00: Satanerie on nationalopera.gr
Thursday 30/4 > 20.00: Prince Ivan and the Firebird on nationalopera.gr

 

The broadcasts of the Greek National Opera's productions are also available through the website of the Ministry of Culture and Sports https://www.culture.gov.gr/el/service/SitePages/view.aspx?iID=4272

 

Below, you can find the full broadcast schedule, in chronological order:

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) (will be available on demand for 30 hours) and on GNO’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/elsnationalopera)
 

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 Mixed Municipal Choir and the GNO Soloists
Henry Purcell’s masterly opera The Fairy Queen, conducted by Markellos Chryssicos 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

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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/) & on GNO’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/elsnationalopera)

Recorded on 3 November 2019 in the GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall at the SNFCC.
Director Katerina Petsatodi / Animation Eirini Vianelli
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

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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/ , on www.nationalopera.gr/en , and on  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 GNO Soloists
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.
The production is directed by the distinguished director Leo Muscato, and  conducted by the famous conductor Philippe Auguin. 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, et al.
More information about the production is available at:
https://bit.ly/Nabucco_GNO

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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/) & on GNO’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/elsnationalopera)

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

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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/) & on GNO’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/elsnationalopera)

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

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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/) & on GNO’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/elsnationalopera)

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 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 2017 – 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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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”.

Lead Donor of the Greek National Opera
STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION