Ministry of Culture and Sports : 2nd Greek National Opera Online Festival | Counterpoints | 27 September – 31 October 2020

Ministry of Culture and Sports

2nd Greek National Opera Online Festival

Counterpoints

A “consonance” of Greek art music with public architecture

27 September – 31 October 2020

nationalopera.gr/en, Facebook, YouTube, digitalculture.gov.gr     

The Greek National Opera presents its 2nd Online Festival titled “Counterpoints”*. The festival is curated by Giorgos Koumendakis and sheds light upon the relationship between Greek art music and architecture. The Festival’s videos will be streamed online from 27 September to 31 October 2020 and will remain available to the public for 30 days after their premiere. The videos will be streamed online at nationalopera.gr/en, on GNO’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, as well as on the website of the Ministry of Culture and Sports digitalculture.gov.gr.

Architecture and music are two arts that share a lot in common: the primacy of structure, the importance of shapes, contrasts and textures, and the deep and immediate communication with the viewer. Through the dialogue of these primordial arts, emblematic buildings of Athens converse with great works from the historical repository of Greek art music. Reaching from the Cretan Renaissance to the present day, works of architecture and music of a respective historical period and style complete each other, offering a fruitful experience to the audience. The Festival’s ultimate goal is to bring out our country’s musical and architectural legacy through the harmonious and equitable pairing of the images of the buildings with the sounds of the works, while communicating to the audience the Greek music and architectural creation.

The Festival was shot at some of the greatest buildings of Athens, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles at the Ancient Agora, the Gennadius Library, the French Institute, the Little Stock Exchange, the Athens Conservatoire, and the Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”. In these places, celebrated Greek artists perform works of Londariti, Konstantinidis, Kalomiris, Ravel, Kounadis, Adamis, Dragatakis, Xenakis, Hatzis, Papadatos, Alexiadis, etc. The Festival is curated by Greek National Opera’s Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis.

Giorgos Koumendakis notes: “When last March, in the midst of the pandemic, we began planning a new online artistic programme, we could not imagine how successful our 1st Online Festival (May-June 2020) would be. Each of its video performances attracted tens of thousands of viewers and many positive comments from across the globe.

After a lot of demanding shooting in the summer, the time has now come for the Greek National Opera’s 2nd Online Festival, titled Counterpoints, which shall engage Greek art music into a creative dialogue with public architecture. Our wish is to celebrate Greek musical creation, from the Cretan Renaissance to this day, bringing to the foreground some of the most remarkable compositions of great Greek composers, such as Londariti, Konstantinidis, Kalomiris, Kounadis, Adamis, Dragatakis, Xenakis, Hatzis, Papadatos, Alexiadis. We asked distinguished artists of the GNO and beyond, to study and interpret these emblematic art music works in prestigious buildings that form part of the historical legacy of Athens. From 27/9 to 31/10, we invite you to travel with us –through the screen of your computer, tablet or mobile phone– using our music and architectural legacy as a vehicle, and making stopovers at the Cretan Renaissance, the Interwar period, the encounter of our folk music with art music, modernism, Xenakis’s universe and the 21st century.”

* Counterpoint is the way that many melodies are harmonically interconnected – the simultaneous consonance of many different melodies resulting in a harmonious composition.

The Greek National Opera would like to thank the Management of the National Bank of Greece, the French Institute of Athens, the Gennadius Library, the Athens Conservatoire, the Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”, as well as the Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Athens for providing permit for the shooting of the videos and for their exceptional collaboration.

The Greek National Opera would like to thank all the artists and artistic ensembles, who have given their permission for the free broadcast of these video-performances to the public, in this difficult time.

Lead Donor of the GNO

STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION

PROGRAMME OF THE 2nd ONLINE FESTIVAL “COUNTERPOINTS”

Cretan Renaissance / Church of the Holy Apostles of the Solakis, Ancient Agora
Premiere: 27 September 2020 at 20.00, on nationalopera.gr/en, GNO Facebook page and YouTube channel, and digitalculture.gov.gr | It will remain available online until 27/10

Seven emblematic works of Francescο Londariti, from the Cretan Renaissance, as well as one work of Orlando di Lasso and Francesco de Laudis are performed by three distinguished musicians, Dimitris Koundouras (recorder), Ilias-Ion Livieratos (violin, viola) and Dimitris Tigkas (violone) in the yard and inside the Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles at the Ancient Agora of Athens. The Festival is realized thanks to the support of the grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org]for the enhancement of the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

MUSIC: Francescο Londariti (1518-1572) was a Cretan Catholic musician who emerged in the wealthy, cosmopolitan and exciting Venetian Renaissance music life of the 1540s. Born in Handakas –today’s Heraklion–, he played the organ and was also a singer and a composer, associated with the Saint Titus Cathedral in his city. He sought a better future in Italy, first in Rome and then in Venice. He used to sing at the famous St Mark’s Basilica and wrote religious and secular music in the elaborate Venetian polyphonic idiom of Cinquecento. He joined the Munich Court after receiving an invitation from Duke Albert V, just like another Greek musician of the time, Francesco de Laudis. The selection of Londariti’s works along with the compositions of other musicians of the time bring out the musical framework in which he created, both in Venice and Munich. Londariti’s two three-tone canzonettas are a typical sample of the secular, light and highly popular form known as canzonetta napoletana. His religious work is worthily represented by two parts of the liturgy –“Agnus Dei” and Kyrie eleison”– in a stricter, more complex homogeneous polyphonic style. The programme is completed with a secular, playful song of the great French-Flemish musician Orlando di Lasso, who marked the music life of the Munich Court, as well as with a canzonetta of composer and virtuoso cornetist Francesco de Laudis. Finally, an instrumental version of these vocal compositions proposes a different listening experience focused on bringing out the contrapuntal writing and the clarity of the form.

ARCHITECTURE: The Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles of the Solakis is situated at the southeastern corner of the Athens Ancient Agora and dates back from the last quarter of the 10th century A.D. It was constructed over the foundation of a 2nd-century A.D. Nymphaeum in a cross-in-square style. The name Solakis probably refers to the Solakis, a wealthy family of Athens, who funded the reconstruction of the temple during the period of the Turkish rule. During the years 1954-1956 restoration works were carried out to bring the monument back to its original form.

Interwar period / Gennadius Library
Premiere: 2 October 2020 at 20.00, on nationalopera.gr/en, GNO Facebook page and YouTube channel, and digitalculture.gov.gr | It will remain available online until 2/11

Three of the greatest Greek art music works written during the Interwar period are performed at the Gennadius Library by mezzo-soprano Margarita Syngeniotou, accompanied on the piano by Apostolos Palios. Yannis Konstantinidis’s Songs of Anticipation, Manolis Kalomiris’s song Should I Speak? set to poetry by Kostis Palamas, and Dimitri Mitropoulos’s 10 Inventions, set to poetry by Constantine Cavafy.

THE MUSIC: The common intellectual mindset of Manolis Kalomiris and Kostis Palamas defined the creative work of this great Greek composer. Kalomiris set to music many of Palamas’s poems, and one of his Symphonies, the 3d, was titled “Palamiki”. The song Should I Speak? is the first from Palamas’s collection From the Five-Syllables.
Originally from Smyrna, just like Manolis Kalomiris, Yannis Konstantinidis went to Germany to study music a while before the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922. In Germany he presented his operetta The Love Bacillus (1927), that was also staged by the Greek National Opera a few years ago. That period (1924) he started to write the music for the Five Songs of Anticipation, set to poetry by Rabindranath Tagore, a project he was involved in until 1980.
Dimitri Mitropoulos ended up to ten Inventions, set to poetry by Constantine Cavafy in 1924, after choosing from a collection of fourteen similar compositions he had created. The pieces were arranged in a cycle consisting of four units [1. Four canons, 2. Two passacaglias, 3. Prelude and Fugue in four voices, 4. Pedale – Coda (Finale)], which first premiered in 1927 at the concert hall of the Athens Conservatoire performed by soprano Popi Sertsiou and the composer himself on the piano.

THE ARCHITECTURE: The building of the Gennadius Library designed by American architects John van Pelt and Stuart Thompson is a late sample of neoclassical architecture. Neoclassicism emerged in Europe in the mid-18th century, principally inspired by the classical architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. It flourished mainly in Munich and it was then introduced to Athens thanks to the Bavarians as the par excellence architectural style that befitted the capital of the newly-founded Greek state. The Gennadius Library was constructed in this style almost a century later, between 1923 and 1925.

Music and Greekness / Little Stock Exchange, Sofokleous Str.
Premiere: 7 October 2020 at 20.00, on nationalopera.gr/en, GNO Facebook page and YouTube channel, and digitalculture.gov.gr | It will remain available online until 7/11

Two works exploring the relation between folk and art music are performed at the Little Stock Exchange by GNO soloists Tassis Christoyannis and Yannis Christopoulos, with Sophia Tamvakopoulou on the piano: Yannis Konstantinidis’s Twenty Songs of the Greek People and Maurice Ravel’s Five Greek Folk Songs.

THE MUSIC: Folk songs and traditional music have been a steady source of inspiration for Yannis Konstantinidis. In his works the composer preserved the outline of the original songs and highlighted their special characteristics, the rhythmic stresses and the flourishes of the melodic line. He was preoccupied with the composition of the Twenty Songs of the Greek People for about a decade (1937-1947). In this concert the Songs engage in a dialogue with the Five Greek Folk Songs harmonized by Maurice Ravel in the early 20th century (1904-1906).

THE ARCHITECTURE: The Athens Stock Exchange was founded in 1876 and was initially housed at the Melas Residence, where, until then, the Central Post Office used to be. From 1885 to 1891 the Athens Stock Exchange was housed at the building on 11 Sofokleous Str. which had been constructed by the stock broking S.A. “Ermis”. In 1891 it moved to the building on Pesmazoglou Str., where it remained until 1934. The Little Stock Exchange is a neoclassical building with many Renaissance elements and an impressive interior and exterior décor. It consists of only one single space, the impressive Stock Exchange Hall, about twelve meters high and 17.5x15.5 m. wide. Its internal décor is the main reason why in 1991 it was declared by the Ephorate of Modern Monuments of the Ministry of Culture “a work of art and a historical and protected monument along with its surrounding space, because of its great architectural, morphological and historical significance, both internally and externally”.

Modernism / French Institute
Premiere: 12 October 2020 at 20.00, on nationalopera.gr/en, GNO Facebook page and YouTube channel, and digitalculture.gov.gr | It will remain available online until 12/11

Mezzo-soprano Margarita Syngeniotou performs Dimitris Dragatakis’s Monologue, while baritone Tassis Christoyannis performs Michael Adamis’s work A Woman Clothed with the Sun and Argyris Kounadis’s Five Songs to Poetry by Constantine Cavafy, at the auditorium and the roof of the French Institute. Conductor - piano: Nicolas Vassiliou. Members of the Greek National Opera Orchestra Harris Hadjigeorgiou (Violin, Concertmaster), Nikolas Kavakos (Cello, Principal I), Nikos Nikopoulos (Flute, Principal I),Dimitris Safarian (Oboe, Principal I),Kostas Theodorakos (Percussion, Principal II)

THE MUSIC: All members of the same generation, Dimitris Dragatakis (1914-2001), Argyris Kounadis (1924-2011) and Michael Adamis (1929-2013), were three of the most important representatives of Greek musical modernism. Dragatakis, a member of the Greek National Orchestra for many years, preserves through a modern writing his connection with Greek elements such as the songs of Epirus and the origins of ancient drama, rejecting any sense of folklore. His work Monologue No. 1 for voice was composed in 1979, followed by works of the same title for cello (2000), violin (2001) and piano (2001). In Monologue No. 1 the surrealistic text of the composer himself shifts between prose and poetry.
Born in Constantinople, Kounadis studied in Athens and then in Freiburg, Germany, where he delved particularly in the twelve-tone, serial and aleatoric music. He was very much involved in vocal music – he composed operas and set poetry to music. Cavafy’s five poems were set to music in 1961.
After his studies in Athens, Adamis studied electronic music but also Byzantine music palaeography in Boston. His work A Woman Clothed with the Sun, originally written for a mezzo-soprano, piano and, optionally, gong was completed in 1998, and was followed by a version for an eight-voice mixed chorus in 2005.

THE ARCHITECTURE: The new building of the French Institute of Athens was built in the years 1973-1976 and it was designed by architect Sthenis Molfesis, graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. It is one of the most remarkable manifestations of the international Brutalist code. The three-floor building is significantly differentiated from the old French Institute but also from its structured environment. It has a ground floor, two floors above it and a recessed floor. The ground floor houses an auditorium with a capacity of 400 seats.

Iannis Xenakis, 1st part / Athens Conservatoire, Rigillis Str.
Premiere: 17 October 2020 at 20.00, on nationalopera.gr/en, GNO Facebook page and YouTube channel, and digitalculture.gov.gr | It will remain available online until 17/11

One of the most famous and most impressive works of Iannis Xenakis for solo percussion, Psappha (Sappho), along with the work for solo cello Kottos are performed by soloists Alexandros Giovanos (percussion) and Nicolas Prevezianos (cello), at the emblematic building of Athenian modernism, the Athens Conservatoire.

THE MUSIC: One of the most important composers of the 20th century, Iannis Xenakis shaped his completely personal language from quite early on, redefining the content and the goal of the art of music. He was an architect himself, with a small but significant work as he collaborated with Le Corbusier.
One of Xenakis’s most famous compositions for solo percussion, Psappha (Sappho), is at the same time one of the most impressive. It was commissioned by the English Bach Festival with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and dedicated to the famous percussion soloist Sylvio Gualda, who was also the first to ever perform it in London in 1976.
Kottos, a work for solo cello, first premiered in 1977 at La Rochelle Festival.
 
THE ARCHITECTURE: In 1959 a tender was held for the creation of the Cultural Centre of Athens that would include a state theatre, a building for concerts, dance theatre and conferences, an open air theatre, a library, a museum and a gallery, a building for scientific organizations, a large square and a hotel. From this complex, the Athens Conservatoire is the only building that was constructed but remained unfinished to this day. Ioannis Despotopoulos’s unadorned style gives it a place among the most important buildings of modernism in Greece.

Iannis Xenakis, 2nd part / Athens Conservatoire, Rigillis Str.
Premiere: 22 October 2020 at 20.00, on nationalopera.gr/en, GNO Facebook page and YouTube channel, and digitalculture.gov.gr| It will remain available online until 22/11

Iannis Xenakis’s emblematic work Rebonds for solo percussion and the monologue of Kassandra for percussion and voice are performed by musician Alexandros Giovanos (percussion) and baritone Martin Gerke at the Athens Conservatoire venues, on Rigillis Str., a great sample of modernism.

THE MUSIC: One of the most important composers of the 20th century, Iannis Xenakis shaped his completely personal language from quite early on, redefining the content and the goal of the art of music. He was an architect himself, with a small but significant work, since he collaborated with Le Corbusier.
The work Rebonds for solo percussion, written between 1987 and 1989, explores the sound universe of percussion. It consists of two independent parts, each performed by different instruments. According to the composer, the order between the two parts is undefined, but in any case each part has to follow the other without pause.
The monologue of Kassandra was first performed by Spyros Sakkas at the Gibellina Festival (Italy) in 1987. It is an addition to Xenakis’s Oresteia, whose composition had started in 1966. A further addition was made in 1992. It was a monologue of Goddess Athena, written once again for Sakkas.

THE ARCHITECTURE: In 1959 a tender was held for the creation of the Cultural Centre of Athens that would include a state theatre, a building for concerts, dance theatre and conferences, an open air theatre, a library, a museum and a gallery, a building for scientific organizations, a large square and a hotel. From this complex, the Athens Conservatoire is the only building that was constructed but remained unfinished to this day. Ioannis Despotopoulos’s unadorned style gives it a place among the most important buildings of modernism in Greece.

21st century, 1st part / Athens International Airport “El. Venizelos”
Premiere: 26 October 2020 at 20.00, on nationalopera.gr/en, GNO Facebook page and YouTube channel, and digitalculture.gov.gr | It will remain available online until 26/11

Two works of important modern Greek composers, Minas I. Alexiadis’s Doric Concerto for string orchestra and Joseph Papadatos’s composition Phoenix for string orchestra, are performed by musicians of the Greek National Opera Orchestra under the baton of Miltos Logiadis, at the venues of the Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”.

THE MUSIC: Minas I. Alexiadis’s Doric Concerto was written for the Armonia Atenea and first premiered in 1997 at the Athens Concert Hall, under the baton of Theodore Antoniou. The composer notes about the work: « In its initial phase the compositional process,  was a study in diatonic modality, structured in detail (canons, imitations, augmentations - diminutions, heterophonic ramifications, and other techniques  of polyphony). Later on, a Dorian mode: solely and throughout, where I simply took care to bring the melodies to “singing”. The strongly contrapunctual first movement (Μοderato fluente), leads to the pandiatonic slow second movement (Adagio religioso). In the third movement  (Vivo), the principal melodic theme of the work  prevails, organized through all these compositional  techniques and functioning also as a Greek dance (ballos) in  3+3+2=8/8 time signature».
The composition Phoenix (Sketches for an allegory) for string orchestra, Joseph Papadatos’s opus 110, was written in 2018. It was commissioned by conductor Nikos Tsouchlos for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Summer Nostos Festival. According to Herodotus, the crimson mythological bird Phoenix is reborn from his ashes. Phoenix is a sacred and omnipotent symbol and can be found in many ancient civilizations across the globe. It is associated with the Sun and the element of fire. It symbolizes the eternal rebirth through purification (flames). Both the title and the subtitle are suggestive of the work’s extra-musical origin, without however being limited to a descriptive disposition. The work consists of three parts, each separated by a pause.

THE ARCHITECTURE: The Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” started operating on 28 March 2001, replacing the International Airport of Elliniko that served Athens for sixty years. It was named after the Greek politician Eleftherios Venizelos, who as a prime minister founded the Ministry of Aviation and made systematic efforts to organize civil aviation.

21st century, 2nd part / Athens International Airport “El. Venizelos”
Premiere: 31 October 2020 at 20.00, on nationalopera.gr/en, GNO Facebook page and YouTube channel, and digitalculture.gov.gr| It will remain available online until 30/11

Distinguished Greek modern composer Christos Hatzis’s Zeitgeist for string quartet is performed by musicians of the Greek National Opera Orchestra, under the baton of Miltos Logiadis, at the Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”.

THE MUSIC: Zeitgeist (spirit of the age) is a personal reflection of the composer Christos Hatzis on the character of the arts today, music in particular. It is the result of an ongoing interest in cultural diversity and historical discontinuity, which are discernible characteristics of most of his work. By “historical discontinuity” the composer means the approach to history whereby the artistic products of various eras are not viewed as successive links in a sequential chain, but rather as the pieces of a comprehensive puzzle, all of which are ever-present and functional in a timeless, multidimensional present. In this sense, Zeitgeist is a postmodern work; musical experiences from the past are taken out of their specific historical context and are assembled and juxtaposed in a way which reestablishes them as viable artistic experiences for here and now.

THE ARCHITECTURE: The Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” started operating on 28 March 2001, replacing the International Airport of Elliniko that served Athens for sixty years. It was named after the Greek politician Eleftherios Venizelos, who as a prime minister founded the Ministry of Aviation and made systematic efforts to organize civil aviation.