"Capodistrias: Monodrama of a Secret Life" tickets go on sale

Calliope Tsoupaki
Capodistrias
Monodrama of a Secret Life
1, 2, 3 October 2021
GNO Alternative Stage – Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

Tickets go on sale on Monday 2 August at 12.00 and are available at ticketservices.gr/en/, the GNO Box Office at the SNFCC and Public stores.

The Greek National Opera Alternative Stage kicks off the 2021/22 season with an ambitious commemorative production at the SNFCC: the new, original music theatre work Capodistrias: Monodrama of a Secret Life by Calliope Tsoupaki. The production, conducted by Nicolas Vassiliou and directed by Themelis Glynatsis, will be presented on 1, 2 & 3 October 2021. The production is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

The unrequited love between the first governor of the modern Greek State, Ioannis Capodistrias, and Roxandra Sturdza, the lady-in-waiting of the Empress of Russia, serves as subject to the new monodrama by Calliope Tsoupaki, an important Greek-Dutch composer recently awarded the title of Composer Laureate (Componist des Vaderlands), the highest compositional distinction in the Netherlands.

In one of the most romantic episodes of the Greek struggle for independence, Capodistrias and Sturdza (the former a promising politician and diplomat, the latter an educated noblewoman, offspring of a rich Greek Moldavian family) met at the Russian imperial court in 1809 and shared a longstanding, deeply spiritual bond; nevertheless, their love was unconsummated due to their class difference and Capodistrias’ self-sacrificing commitment to the Greek cause. Their relationship blossomed around music: apart from their common political activism concerning the Philomuse Society of Vienna (a notable nexus of philhellenic activity at the time), Sturdza is reputed to have played the piano to Capodistrias during their more private moments…

Based on their extensive correspondence as well as on Sturdza’s memoirs, the composer renders their moving story in non-narrative terms and sensitively “stages” a compassionate immersion in the shared interiority of two people who lived separately – but are brought together retroactively on stage, thanks to the empathetic power of Tsoupaki’s music, full of sensuality and repressed passion.



Music theatre
World premiere / Commissioned by the GNO Alternative Stage
Calliope Tsoupaki
Capodistrias
Monodrama of a Secret Life
1, 2, 3 October 2021
Starts at 20.30 (Sunday 19.00)
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center
As part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution

Conductor Nicolas Vassiliou
Stage director Themelis Glynatsis
Set & costume designer Alexia Theodorakis
Video designers Marios Gampierakis, Chrysoula Korovesi
Lighting designer: Stella Kaltsou
Research consultant Mando Malamou

With Timos Sirlantzis as Ioannis Capodistrias
Also featuring Marilena Germanou




Ticket prices: 15, 20€
Students, children: 10€
Tickets go on sale on 2 August 2021, at 12.00
Book your tickets at ticketservices.gr/en/, the GNO Box Office at the SNFCC (+30 2130885700, daily 09.00-21.00. The Box Office will be closed from 9/8/2021 to 15/8/2021) and Public stores.

Following the health safety guidelines for live performances, spectacles, and other performing arts in open air venues issued on 16/7/2021, it is noted that:
– To enter the venue audience members must provide either a certificate of full vaccination or a certificate of prior COVID-19 infection (issued 30 days after the first positive test and valid for 180 days thereafter)
– The GNO Alternative Stage will operate at a 85% capacity.
– All measures to prevent overcrowding when entering and exiting the venue will apply, there will be no interval, and mask-wearing is mandatory upon entering and exiting the venue and throughout the duration of the performance.
– You can find more detailed information at https://www.nationalopera.gr/en/tickets

Founding donor to the Alternative Stage & the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution
Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org]