Monday, 20 September 2021

Back to the Opera | Stavros Niarchos Hall updated programme for October - December 2021

The Greek National Opera returns to indoor performances and announces its updated programme, from October to December 2021. The programme is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach and also to create a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution.

The October to December programme that will be presented on the stage of Greek National Opera’s Stavros Niarchos Hall comprises opera, ballet, dance, concerts, and opera performances for the whole family. In the last trimester of 2021 the GNO audience will have the chance to enjoy works by distinguished Greek composers Paolo Carrer, Nikos Skalkottas, Mikis Theodorakis, Giorgos Koumendakis and George Dousis, as well as a recital of works by Puccini featuring Sonya Yoncheva, a ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and works by American composers.

October starts with a performance in concert of Carrer’s opera Frossini, on Sunday 3 October.
The double bill of opera and dance Despo – Greek Dances by Paolo Carrer and Nikos Skalkottas respectively, will be presented for the first time in front of a live audience on 16, 17, 23 and 24 October.
On 29 and 31 October, the Greek National Opera honours the great Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis with a performance of Axion Esti, as part of the three-year Mikis Theodorakis tribute-cycle.
November begins with a recital of works by Puccini featuring the opera star Sonya Yoncheva, on Thursday 4 November.
The new opera production for the whole family, The Magic Pillows, with music by George Dousis and a libretto by Eugene Trivizas, premieres on 14 November.
Giorgos Koumendakis’ opera The Murderess, set to a libretto by Yannis Svolos and based upon Alexandros Papadiamantis’ novel of the same title, returns to the GNO for four performances on 3, 5, 28 and 30 December.
A new Nutcracker production choreographed by Konstantinos Rigos for the GNO Ballet premieres on 17 December and will run for 7 festive performances.
The concert American Revolution through film music comes to the GNO on 22 and 23 December.

At the same time, GNO TV enriches its content with new premieres (Le nozze di Figaro, A Shepherdess I Loved…, 6th Greek National Opera Online Festival).

Tickets for the October-December 2021 productions at the Stavros Niarchos Hall of the Greek National Opera will go on sale on 23 September 2021 (for Sonya Yoncheva’s recital, in particular, on 1^st October). You can purchase your tickets at the GNO Box Office (+30 2130885700, daily 09.00-21.00) and ticketservices.gr .

It is noted that, according to Official Government Gazette Nº 4214/v.II/13.09.2021, GNO’s venues at the SNFCC will operate at a 85% capacity and only for persons who have been fully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 (audience members need to present a respective valid certificate). Children up to 11 years old must provide a negative self-test result declaration, provided that the test has been taken within the last 24h. Children from 12 to 17 years of age need to present a certificate of vaccination or recovery from COVID-19.

Below follows the detailed programme, from October to December 2021.

Opera in concert • New production

Frossini

Paolo Carrer

3 October 2021

Starts at: 18.30

GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall – SNFCC

As part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution

Conductor: Elias Voudouris • Chorus master: Agathangelos Georgakatos

Ali Pasha: Dionysios Sourbis • Muhtar: Yannis Christopoulos • Frossini: Vassiliki Karayanni •

Ignatius: Tassos Apostolou • Hamko: Julia Souglakou • Tahir: Haris Andrianos

With the Orchestra and Chorus of the GNO

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org].

In one of his letters to Andreas Laskaratos from October 1859, Aristotelis Valaoritis writes about his first big poetic composition Lady Frossini that was published that same year: “I got the idea in my head to offer my nation a poem with a Greek character. […] I mostly wanted it to be historical, so that it could be beneficial, at least to this respect.”

Just nine years later, Zakynthiot poet Elisavetios Martinegkos (1832-1885) adapts Valaoritis’ Lady Frossini into a libretto titled Frossini, which is afterwards set to music by Zakynthiot composer Paolo Carrer (1829-1896). It would be his second “national opera” following Markos Votzaris. Frossini was presented at the “Apollon” Theatre on Zakynthos on 16 November 1868 and toured to Patras, Athens, Alexandria and other Greek centres.

Apart from the historic events that took place in January 1801 portrayed in the opera –the illicit love affair of Euphrosyne Vasileiou (Frossini) with Ali Pasha’s son Muhtar and her tragic death for not succumbing to Ali’s amorous advances–, Carrer gives special emphasis to the relationship between the father and the son (Ali-Muhtar), who are rivals for the love of the same woman, as well as to Frossini’s switch and repentance, when she decides to abandon her illicit affair and go back to her children at the cost of her own life: “I want to be buried in the grave as a fearless, repented, free Greek woman!” says she in her long aria in Act II. In a wider context, the figure of the martyr / heroine Frossini stands for Hellenism and Christianity, while the figure of the ruler Ali symbolises all the misfortunes associated with the Ottoman empire and Islamism.

Regardless of whether Carrer knew about Valaoritis’ letter to Laskaratos or not, they shared the same vision: an opera with a national content and a historical character. Based on the contemporary musical idiom of the Italian operatic language –especially Verdi’s language during the Risorgimento (the struggle for Italy’s political unification)–, the composer will shape his personal style and lay the groundwork for the emergence of Greek opera.

In an effort to enrich its historical archive and with the support of the grant from the SNF, the GNO managed to purchase the only extant manuscript score of Paolo Carrer’s opera Frossini as well as its bilingual reduction for voice and piano from a private collection.

Ticket prices: 15€, 20€, 25€, 30€, 35€, 40€, 45€, 60€ • Students, children: 12€ • Restricted view seats: 10€

Lead donor to the GNO and the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Double bill of opera and dance • New production

Despo by Paolo Carrer & Greek Dances by Nikos Skalkottas

16, 17, 23, 24 October 2021 • Starts at: 19.30 (Sunday 18.30)

GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall – SNFCC

As part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution

Under the patronage of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic Ms Katerina Sakellaropoulou

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org].

Opera

Despo by Paolo Carrer

Conductor: Yorgos Ziavras • Director: Yorgos Nanouris • Sets – Costumes: Angelos Mentis • Lighting: Alekos Yiannaros • Chorus master: Agathangelos Georgakatos • Score editing: Yannis Samprovalakis / Hellenic Music Center

Cast: Artemis Bogri, Dimitris Paksoglou, Yannis Selitsaniotis, Diamanti Kritsotaki • With the Orchestra and Chorus of the GNO

Dance

Greek Dances by Nikos Skalkottas

Conductor: Yorgos Ziavras • Adaptation / transcription for string orchestra: Yannis Samprovalakis / Hellenic Music Center • With the Orchestra and the Corps de ballet of the GNO

Part I: National Adulthood

Choreography: Patricia Apergi • Artistic associate: Eva Georgitsopoulou • Sets: Dimitris Nassiakos • Costumes: Patricia Apergi, Eirini Georgakila • Lighting: Nikos Vlasopoulos • Sound design: Alex Drakos-Ktistakis • Video projection design: Kleopatra Korai

Part II: Finality

Choreography: RootlessRoot – Linda Kapetanea, Jozef Fruček • Sets: Paris Mexis • Costumes: Isabelle Lhoas • Lighting: Perikles Mathiellis • Sound design: Christos Parapagidis

The Greek National Opera presents two remarkable works of the Ionian and National Schools of Music in a single bill of opera and dance with the participation of the Orchestra, Chorus, Ballet and Soloists of the GNO, as part of the tribute to the bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence. In the first part, Nikos Skalkottas’ Greek Dances, a fusion of modernistic and Greek folk music elements, is choreographed anew by Patricia Apergi and Linda Kapetanea – Jozef Fruček, and is presented under the baton of Yorgos Ziavras. The second part features Paolo Carrer’s opera Despo, which was based on Antonios Manousos’ one-act play The tragic death of Despo and her sisters-in-law at Dimoulas’ castle and regarded as the “First Hellenic tragic Melodrama”, conducted by Yorgos Ziavras and directed by Yorgos Nanouris.

Ticket prices: 15€, 20€, 30€, 35€, 42€, 50€, 55€, 70€ • Students, children: 12€ • Restricted view seats: 10€

Lead donor to the GNO and the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Production sponsor Piraeus Bank

Concert

Mikis Theodorakis cycle

Axion Esti

Mikis Theodorakis

29, 31 October 2021

Starts at: 19.30 (Sunday 18.30)

GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall – SNFCC

As part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution

Conductor: Stathis Soulis

Singers: George Dalaras, Dimitri Platanias • Narrator: Giorgos Gallos

With the GNO Orchestra and Chorus

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org].

A performance of Axion Esti by the GNO forces in the context of the tribute to the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence carries with it irresistibly symbolic associations. It will be the first event presented as part of the Mikis Theodorakis cycle after the great Greek composer’s death and will be dedicated to his memory. Fruit of that fertile and largely euphoric period of Modern Greek history, the early ’60s, when the trauma of the Greek Civil War was progressively receding in the past, and new collectivities were enthusiastically seeking cultural expression, this paradoxically-named “popular oratorio” (or “people’s oratorio”) by Mikis Theodorakis (after the poet Odysseus Elytis’ magnum opus) was not only a watershed for Greek music and the career of its creator (“an ending that is (should be) also a beginning”, he writes) but, at the same time, a virtually revolutionary gesture of osmosis between the aesthetic and the political, the intelligentsia and the people, art and life.

Written at the behest of Elytis himself in 1960-61, during the period of Theodorakis’ controversial turn to popular music that began with his musical setting of Yannis Ritsos’ Epitaph, Axion Esti was released only in 1964 – the year of the international phenomenon of Zorba the Greek, and also when Theodorakis was elected to parliament with the United Democratic Left, in a seat associated with the murdered activist Grigoris Lambrakis. The delay was due to the composer’s search for the fragile balance required by his daring wager to synthesise folk-like material with the European tradition, as well as to the gradual, patient work of habituating the general audience to symphonic aesthetics through the activity of the Little Orchestra of Athens, founded by Theodorakis in 1962.

The result justified the composer and unexpectedly became his most commercially successful work. This success was, undoubtedly, due also to the symbolic (in addition to the artistic) gravitas of the original performers: the actor Theodoros Dimitrief as the baritone-Cantor; the folk singer Grigoris Bithikotsis; and the actor Manos Katrakis (an icon of the Greek Left) as the Reader. In addition to that, the form of the work, which retains the proportions and stylistic trichotomy of Elytis’ poem while looking back at the structural models of Bach’s Passions and the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, provides a link to a notable body of mid-20th-century European works that combine neoclassical and religious musical references with timely ideological reckonings – such as Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and Benjamin Britten’s exactly contemporary War Requiem. An ark of “the people’s memory” (per Elytis’ poem) but also an artful trace of a particular era, Axion Esti remains a vibrant and provocative work, always open to new and surprising interpretative approaches.

Ticket prices: 15€, 20€, 25€, 30€, 35€, 40€, 45€, 60€ • Students, children: 12€ • Restricted view seats: 10€

Lead donor to the GNO and the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution Stavros Niarchos Foundation

With the kind support of My Market

Recital

Sonya Yoncheva

4 November 2021

Starts at: 19.30

GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall – SNFCC

Conductor: TBA

With the GNO Orchestra

The Greek National Opera and the association “Together for Children” present for the first time in Greece the acclaimed opera star Sonya Yoncheva, who will give a unique recital with arias from operas of Giacomo Puccini at the Stavros Niarchos Hall. The recital is part of the celebration for the 25th anniversary of the association “Together for Children”, which strives for the well-being of children, young people, and families facing poverty, domestic violence, chronic diseases, mental or physical disabilities, or the sickness or death of an immediate family member.

Soprano Sonya Yoncheva has been heralded as one of the most acclaimed and exciting performers of her generation. After studying piano and voice in her hometown Plovdiv with Nelly Koitcheva, she obtained her master’s degree in voice in Geneva, studying with Danielle Borst. Sonya is an alumna of William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix.

Career highlights include new productions of Tosca and Otello at the Metropolitan Opera, where she also performed the title roles of Luisa Miller, La traviata and Iolanta, Mimì in La bohème and Gilda in Rigoletto, the title parts of Norma (new production) and La traviata, Marguerite in Faust, Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Micaëla in Carmen, Mimì and Musetta in La bohème at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She also perfromed in Il pirata (new staging) and La bohème (Mimì) at the Teatro alla Scala, L’incoronazione di Poppea (new production) at the Salzburg Festival, new stagings of Médée and La traviata at the Staatsoper Berlin, and of Don Carlos, La bohème and Iolanta at the Paris Opéra, where she also appeared in La traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor. She recently sang Tosca at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and at Staatsoper Berlin, Violetta (La traviata) at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Médée at Staatsoper Berlin, Mimì (La bohème) at Covent Garden. She also sang in Il pirata at the Teatro Real Madrid, Otello in Baden-Baden and Berlin, Iolanta and Otello at the MET and participated in the 2020 season opening gala of the Teatro alla Scala, in a Christmas concert hosted by the German President and broadcast on German television, in the Rolex Perpetual Music Gala in Berlin, in the 2020 Concert de Paris, as well as in galas and solo concerts in Salzburg, Madrid, Monte-Carlo, Budapest, Mexico City, Verona and Antwerp.

Sonya Yoncheva records exclusively for Sony Classical and is a global ambassador for Rolex.

Ticket prices: 15€, 25€, 30€, 55€, 70€, 90€, 100€, 140€ • Students, children: 15€ • Restricted view seats: 10€

Lead donor of the GNO Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Proceeds from the recital will be given to the non-profit association “Together for Children”

Lead sponsor Rolex

Sponsor Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Foundation

Supporters Ferreti Group & Okeanis

Opera for the whole family • New production

The Magic Pillows

George Dousis / Eugene Trivizas

14, 21, 23, 28 November & 2, 4, 5, 12, 18, 19 December 2021

Starts at: 11.00 (morning performances & Sundays) / 18.30 (matinées on Saturdays 4, 18/12)

GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall – SNFCC

As part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution

Music: George Dousis • Libretto: Eugene Trivizas

Conductor: Nicolas Vassiliou • Director: Natasha Triantafylli • Sets: Tina Tzoka • Costumes: Ioanna Tsami • Movement Dimitra Mitropoulou • Lighting: George Tellos • Children’s chorus mistress: Konstantina Pitsiakou

Soloists: Nicolas Maraziotis, Nikos Kotenidis, Dionysis Melogiannidis, Vangelis Maniatis, George Mattheakakis, Kostis Rasidakis, Yannis Kavouras, etc.

With a small instrumental ensemble and the GNO Children’s Chorus in the scope of its educational mission

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org].

Once upon a time, in a far-off land called Ouranoupolis, there reigned a hateful king, Arpatilaus the First. With a crow feather, he penned awful and horrible laws: laws that forced his subjects to toil incessantly in mines; laws that cancelled Carnival, school breaks, birthday parties and Sundays; laws that shut down funfairs and playgrounds and replaced them with stone prisons. Thus, it was no wonder that, though he had passed more than fifty laws stating that citizens should love him to death, Arpatilaus was bitterly hated. Privy counsellor Saurilius Vrichelieu explained: “People don’t love you because they dream at night…” Seven weeks and seven days later, he presented his new infernal invention that would rid Arpatilaus from his subjects’ dreams once and for all: the magic, nightmare-inducing pillows. But Arpatilaus and his court did not take into account the resistance of Ouranoupolis’ children…

The famous, much-translated and award-winning story by Eugene Trivizas, after a long career in print and on stage, is adapted by the author himself for the first time into an opera for the whole family. The music of George Dousis, rich in emotions, wanders enjoyably through the alleys of Ouranoupolis, breathing life into a collection of unforgettable characters; while the staging of Natasha Triantafylli reaches for the poetic kernel and liberating force of this redemptive, inexhaustible story. A part of the tribute to the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence, the production of The Magic Pillows celebrates the luminous power of resistance against all kinds of absolutism or obscurantist tyranny, reminding us, in Trivizas’ words, that “no matter what they take from us, we’re always left with something that nobody touches, nobody takes away… Our dreams remain; they are our hope, our oasis, our comfort, a treasure in the midst of our woe…”

Ticket prices (matinées and Sundays): 10€, 12€, 15€, 20€ • Students, children: 12€ • Restricted view seats: 5€ • Daily performances for schools: 12€

Lead donor to the GNO and the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Production sponsor Hellenic Petroleum

Opera

The Murderess

Giorgos Koumendakis

Libretto: Yannis Svolos, based on Alexandros Papadiamantis’ “social novel” of the same title

3, 5, 28, 30 December 2021 • Starts at: 19.30 (Sunday 18.30)

GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall – SNFCC

Conductor: Vassilis Christopoulos • Director: Alexandros Efklidis • Associate director: Angela-Kleopatra Saroglou • Sets: Petros Touloudis • Costumes: Petros Touloudis – Ioanna Tsami • Lighting: Vinicio Cheli • Chorus master: Agathangelos Georgakatos • Children’s chorus mistress: Konstantina Pitsiakou

The title role is sung by Mary-Ellen Nesi • With the participation of Anna Stylianaki, Tassos Apostolou, Vangelis Maniatis, Sophia Kyanidou, Yannis Christopoulos, Yanni Yannissis, Yannis Kalyvas and others.

With the participation of the Orchestra, Chorus, Children’s Chorus (in the scope of its educational mission) and a polyphonic ensemble

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.

A great success of the Greek National Opera and at the same time a major milestone for contemporary Greek music output returns to the stage. The Murderess, the opera by the Artistic Director of the Greek National Opera Giorgos Koumendakis, which was both an artistic and a box office success when it first premiered in 2014, comes to the Stavros Niarchos Hall on 3, 5, 28 and 30 December 2021. Through The Murderess’ composition, Giorgos Koumendakis created an unexpected musical world while evolving his personal musical idiom. His music doesn’t attempt to revive the time of Papadiamantis’ original novel, but to recompose the psychological portrayal of the work’s leading character, Frangoyannou. The score follows every step of the Murderess – sometimes by externalising her inner world and other times by plunging into the dark, gloomy, underground corridors of her psyche.

Yannis Svolos, who stamps his mark on the libretto, condensed The Murderess’ story into the essentials, keeping Papadiamantis’ language intact. The leading figure, known as Khadoula or Frangoyannou, is a middle-aged woman who has suffered a lot and has spent her life serving others: parents, husband, children, grandchildren. Fed up and well aware of the disadvantageous position of women in poor, rural societies like hers, she ends up believing that her mission is to rid the world of girls. She begins by strangling her newborn granddaughter and continues by smothering more girls. Persecuted by the authorities on the mountains, Frangoyannou decides to confess her sins, but on her way to the hermitage of Saint Sostis, she slips into the sea and drowns.

Alexandros Efklidis’ staging attempted to offer a poetic portrayal of the heroine’s psychological landscape. The performance balances between the large-scale level, conveyed through chorus ensembles and a plethora of protagonists, and the small-scale level of Frangoyannou’s inner monologue. Petros Touloudis’ set and costumes (in collaboration with Ioanna Tsami) compose a dark, underground, guilt-driven and earthly world, where Frangoyannou’s “passions” converse with Skiathos’ evocative natural landscape. Distinguished maestro Vassilis Christopoulos conducts. The GNO Orchestra is accompanied by three musicians on stage and four chorus ensembles. The GNO Chorus is directed by Agathangelos Georgakatos and the GNO Children’s Chorus by Konstantina Pitsiakou. The exceptionally taxing title role will be performed by distinguished Greek mezzo-soprano Mary-Ellen Nesi.

Ticket prices: 15€, 20€, 30€, 35€, 42€, 50€, 55€, 70€ • Students, children: 12€ • Restricted view seats: 10€

Lead donor of the GNO Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Production sponsor LIDL

Ballet • Νew production

The Nutcracker

Konstantinos Rigos / Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

17, 19, 24, 26, 29, 31 December 2021 & 2 January 2022

Starts at: 19.30 (Sunday 18.30)

GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall – SNFCC

Conductor: Elias Voudouris • Choreography – Set: Konstantinos Rigos • Collaborating architect: Mary Tsagari • Costumes: Deux Hommes

With the Orchestra, Principal Dancers, Soloists, Demi-Soloists and the Corps de ballet of the Greek National Opera

The Nutcracker, the most beautiful Christmas story, comes back to enthrall children and grown-ups in a new impressive choreography by GNO Ballet Director Konstantinos Rigos. From 17 December and for a run of 7 festive performances in the Stavros Niarchos Hall, at the SNFCC.

The Nutcracker is rightly regarded as one of the most popular ballets in the repertoire, since the emotional power and theatricality of Tchaikovsky’s music has enduringly captivated both children and adult audiences. The Nutcracker was first performed in its initial two-act version at the Mariinsky Imperial Theatre in St Petersburg on 18 December 1892, choreographed by Lev Ivanov, with a libretto by Marius Petipa and music by Tchaikovsky. The original storyline was inspired by E. T. A. Hoffmann’s tale The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Numerous other choreographies have followed over the years, including those of George Balanchine (1954), Yuri Grigorovich (1966), John Cranko (the same year), Rudolf Nureyev (1967) and John Neumeier (1971).

Konstantinos Rigos notes about the new choreography: “On Christmas Eve, as Clara opens up her presents she finds a strange toy, her favourite Nutcracker. In her delicate childhood world, dreams and reality blend in the sweetest way. In the Nutcracker’s arms she will have the most amazing dreams but also the most frightening nightmares. This time the Nutcracker of the GNO Ballet will attempt to bring out both the dark and the bright, spectacular side of the known fairy tale. A new strange world is created on stage, in which Clara’s glass room meets the bright, colourful objects hovering on stage, the baroque portals leading to the underground kingdom of mice, but also to the wonderfully lit Christmas tree. The costumes by Deux Hommes, in their second collaboration with the GNO Ballet, add that touch of magic every fairy tale needs.”

Ticket prices: 15€, 20€, 30€, 35€, 42€, 50€, 55€, 70€ • Students, children: 12€ • Restricted view seats: 10€

Lead donor of the GNO Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Production sponsor Alpha Bank

Concert • Νew production

The American Revolution through film music

22, 23 December 2021

Starts at: 19.30

GNO Stavros Niarchos Hall – SNFCC

As part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution

Conductor: tba • Artistic curator: Panagis Pagoulatos

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org].

“Your virtues, Americans, are close to ours, although a broad sea separates us… We feel you closer than our neighbouring countries and we consider you as friends, co-patriots and brothers, because you are fair, philanthropic and brave… Deciding to live or die for Liberty, we are drawn to you by legitimate sympathy; because Liberty chose to live in your land, as you are the only ones to worship her the way our forefathers worshipped her…” So wrote the Greek military leader Petrobey Mavromichalis in 1821 to John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State of the United States, epitomising the feeling of affinity –widespread at the time– which elevated the American Revolutionary War to the status of progenitor and inspiration not only for the Greek War of Independence but also for the whole of the (per Hobsbawm) European “age of revolution”.

Epic in its scope and spectacular in its dramatic twists and turns, the American Revolutionary War has been the subject of –or historical setting for– an enormous number of motion pictures, made both within and outside of the official Hollywood production machine. Many of these films boast symphonic scores of outstanding quality and high-flown inspiration, thanks to the artistic input of distinguished, award-winning composers.

Through the compositions of master craftsmen (such as John Corigliano, John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, etc) from the whole history of cinema –an era-defining industry for the United States during the whole of the 20th century and well into our own time, straddling as it does in unique ways the high and popular conceptions of art–, the Greek National Opera pays tribute to a revolution that historically preceded the Greek War of Independence, led, however, to the founding of a constitutional model of governance based on the example and ideals of the classical Greek republic.

Ticket prices: 15€, 20€, 30€, 35€, 42€, 50€, 55€, 70€ • Students, children: 12€ • Restricted view seats: 10€

Lead donor to the GNO & the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution Stavros Niarchos Foundation

With the support of the U.S. Embassy in Athens, in celebration of 200 years of friendship between the United States and Greece

Le nozze di Figaro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

From 25 October to 31 December 2021 on GNO TV

Ticket: 10€ (ticketservices.gr & GNO Box Office)

As part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution

Conductor: Vassilis Christopoulos • Director: Alexandros Efklidis • Dramaturgy – Associate director: Angela-Kleopatra Saroglou • Sets: Yannis Katranitsas • Costumes: Ioanna Tsami • Lighting designer: Melina Mascha • Chorus master: Agathangelos Georgakatos

Count Almaviva: Dimitri Platanias • Countess Almaviva: Cellia Costea • Susanna: Afroditi Patoulidou • Figaro: Dionysios Sourbis • Cherubino: Miranda Makrynioti • Marcellina: Marisia Papalexiou • Bartolo: Yanni Yannissis • Basilio: Christos Kechris • Don Curzio: Yannis Kalyvas • Barbarina: Marilena Striftobola • Antonio: Kostis Rasidakis

With the Orchestra and Chorus of the GNO

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org].

A big opera production will receive its exclusive premiere on GNO TV in October. Le nozze di Figaro under the baton of the internationally acclaimed conductor Vassilis Christopoulos and directed by the GNO Alternative Stage Artistic Director Alexandros Efklidis, which was filmed last spring without a live audience, now comes to your screens through nationalopera.gr/GNOTV, from 25 October to 31 December 2021.

In Alexandros Eflklidis’ imaginative staging, the fine shades of Mozart’s musico-theatrical genius are brought out through a cinematic set portraying a universe of retro paradoxicality. Mozart’s characters are turned into the cogs of a strange world underlining the eternal struggle for improvement of one’s social position and dignity. The filmlike set is highlighted by the shooting, which focuses on the details of the performances, while also emphasising the productions’ CinemaScope aspect.

In the leading roles we find younger but also internationally acclaimed soloists of the GNO, such as Dimitri Platanias, Cellia Costea, Dionysios Sourbis, Afroditi Patoulidou, Miranda Makrynioti, etc.

Le nozze di Figaro was first performed in Vienna in 1876, three years prior to the French Revolution. Lorenzo da Ponte’s libretto, which is based on Beaumarchais’ five-act comedy La folle journée ou Le Mariage de Figaro (The Mad Day or The Marriage of Figaro), echoes the turbulent era and the rivalry between two different social classes: that of the Count and Countess Almaviva, and the one of their servants, Susanna and Figaro. More specifically, the story of Le nozze is about Figaro and Susanna’s effort to get married despite the obstacles put in their way by the Count.

GNO TV is a new strand of Greek National Opera’s programming, made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

Lead donor to the GNO & the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution Stavros Niarchos Foundation

A Shepherdess I Loved…

Memories from a musical mission in Greece of 1875 by Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray

From 16 November to 31 December 2021 on GNO TV

Free streaming at www.nationalopera.gr/GNOTV

As part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution

Initial concept – Research – Musical organisation: Markellos Chryssicos • Director: Yannis Skourletis / bijoux de kant • Costume and set coordination: bijoux de kant • Music instruction and GNO Children’s Chorus mistress: Konstantina Pitsiakou

Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray: Polydoros Vogiatzis • Young Athena: Kalliopi Tzanidaki • Participating singers: Cellia Costea (soprano), Theodora Baka (mezzo-soprano), Lazaros Negas (singer), Yorgos Stavrou (chanter) • With the participation of a small musical ensemble, as well as members of the GNO Children’s Chorus in the scope of its educational mission

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org]

In winter 1875, Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray (1840-1910) comes to Greece for a second time, enchanted by the straightforwardness and sincerity of Greek folk music. He arrives as a guest of the French School of Athens in Kolonaki. A while later, having already visited Smyrna and Constantinople, he collects and publishes Thirty folk melodies from Greece and the East [Trente mélodies populaires de Grèce et d’Orient, 1876]. Thus he delivers one of the most important records about the reception of Greek folk music by European musicians, while also laying the ground for the creation of a national school of music.

Inspired by Bourgault-Ducoudray’s story, composer Yannis Skourletis and conductor Markellos Chryssicos create an audiovisual narrative based upon his Memories from a musical mission in Greece and the East [Souvenirs d’une mission musicale en Grèce et en Orient, 1876], which were imbued with the folk tunes he had been so impressed by.

Walking around the garden and the site of the French School of Archaeology, somewhere between memory and lived experience, the protagonist will discern images from his musical journey. Classical and street musicians, figures from the Byzantine tradition, and romantic memories will recompose the young traveller’s exotic experience, while showcasing the constant and active dialogue between the East and the West. Α testament to all this will be the original Érard piano, which he himself gave to the French School of Archaeology a few years after his journey and which still stands in its large lounge to this day.

The production was created on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the École française d’Athènes (French School of Athens) and was filmed on its site from 4 to 7 June 2021.

Lead donor to the GNO & the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution Stavros Niarchos Foundation

6th Greek National Opera Online Festival for the whole family

The Bear and the Baritone on Other Planets

From 23 December 2021 to 31 July 2022 on GNO TV | nationalopera.gr/GNOTV

The festival will be streamed for free

The 6th Greek National Opera Online Festival brings three new music theatre productions for the whole family to your screens, through GNO TV. The productions will be available for free at nationalopera.gr/GNOTV.

— The Bear’s Tales “The squirrel that made a forest disappear”

Premiere Thursday 23 December 2021 | It will remain online until 30/4/2022

A squirrel, the darkness-woman and a walking tree meet up in an original musical tale about diversity. Stop motion animation and contemporary music create a magic forest of sounds and images, inspired by Sofia Gubaidulina’s work Musical Toys (1969).

Music editing (musical collage, improvisation) – Piano, keyboard: Ann-Kristin Sofroniou • Original text – Libretto: Andriana Minou • Illustration – Animation: Christina Spanou • Narrator – Singer: Maria Katrivesi

— Bridget Planet A story for preschool children

Premiere Monday 27 December 2021 | | It will remain online until 31/7/2022

Bridget Planet creates a world from zero. It describes the life of lonely people. Their everyday life seems tediously repetitive. Extreme weather conditions, environmental pollution and loneliness compose a world in which the characters seem to be trapped. Redemption can only come through music, which awakens children’s imagination and builds the bridges that will connect everything that is isolated and in pieces.

Artistic curator: Margarita Gerogianni • Animation: Mariniki Bakali • Music: Yorgos Tamiolakis

— The Baritone’s Shoes by Dimitris Baslam

Premiere Monday 3 January 2022 | It will remain online until 31/7/2022

Α musical performance for children and grown-ups based on musician and author Dimitris Baslam’s book of the same title. Mr Charitone was a Baritone, not a cook or tailor or butler or furniture-maker; he was a well-preserved, courteous and always well-dressed Baritone. “Charitone Fuchs, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” he used to say, with a hint of pomposity when he introduced himself, while also taking, of course, the appropriate bow. “Lyric Baritone”, he would add. “Not melodic, lyric!” he would insist, emphasising the difference between them, if anyone asked him: “Seriously, what’s the difference, Mr Charitone?”. Then he would answer: “It’s just a matter of repertoire!”. To Mr Charitone, of course, it was just a matter of precision… A narrator, a dancer and three performers-musicians are on stage portraying all of the work’s characters. They move, communicate, and dance to eventually become Mr Charitone Fuchs, the Baritone.

Text – Direction – Music: Dimitris Baslam • Sets – Costumes: Martha Foka • Charitone Fuchs – Choreography: Ermis Malkotsis • Narrator: Michalis Valasoglou • Viola, violin: Fotis Siotas • Rhodes piano: Orestes Benekas • Cello: Despina Spanou

Lead donor to the GNO Stavros Niarchos Foundation