Verdi’s Shakespeare | Helena Matheopoulos’ speech on the occasion of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Falstaff

Throughout his life, Verdi had a passion for Shakespeare. Inspired by the great English poet, he passed down to the operatic repertoire three masterpieces: Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff, assimilating the text through his music to such an extent that he managed to transform the Shakespearean dramas into new compositions. The tension, vivacity, and unadorned “masculine” compositional style of Verdi endows the Shakesperean characters with an added vitality that makes them seem more real than in prose theatre. The music and the way Verdi handles it creates a context for emotional expression that offers audiences the chance to enjoy an ultimate experience.

The speech, accompanied by video projections, will follow the fascinating compositional journey of these three great works through Verdi’s live and creative correspondence with his librettists, Francesco Maria Piave for Macbeth, and poet and composer Arrigo Boito for the other two operas. Through it we become witnesses to a give and take process that is reminiscent of the immediacy of modern-day communications and social media!

Date & time: 4 February 2023, 17.00

Place: VIP Lounge of the Greek National Opera in the SNFCC (1^st floor GNO Foyer)

Speaker: Helena Matheopoulos, associate editor of the Opera Now magazine and published author of the books:

— Books: 1982: Maestro: Encounters with Conductors of Today, Hutchinson, UK – Harper & Row, USA. Named “Music Book of the Year 1983” in the USA by the magazine Stereo Review.

— Bravo: Today’s Tenors, Baritones and Basses Discuss Their Roles, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, UK – Harper & Row, USA. Chosen as the book offered as The 1986 Season Prize to the winner of the weekly interval quiz of the hugely popular Saturday radio relay of Metropolitan Opera performances, “Live from the Met.”

— Diva: Today’s Sopranos and Mezzos Discuss Their Roles and the Art of Singing, Gollancz, UK – Northeastern University Press, USA.

— Diva: The New Generation, Little, Brown, UK – Northeastern University Press, USA.

— Placido Domingo: My Operatic Roles, Little, Brown, UK – Baskerville, USA.

— Fashion Designers at the Opera, Thames & Hudson, UK & US – Kapon Editions, Greece, 2015.

Admission is free but reservation is required via ticketservices.gr, from 25 January 2023.

GNO Learning and Participation major donor