Greek National Opera Tribute to Maria Callas

 • 26/11: UNBOXING CALLAS exhibition at the National Library of Greece
• 2/12: Callas documentary screening at the Stavros Niarchos Hall
• 7/12: Visualising the Voice of Callas installation in the GNO Foyer
• 16/12: The Repertoire Never Heard… on GNO TV
Part of the 2023 UNESCO Maria Callas Anniversary proposed by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture

The Greek National Opera tribute programme marking the centennial anniversary of Maria Callas’ birth, curated by Giorgos Koumendakis, will be coming to a head this November and December with a wealth of major events held in various spaces at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, and online on GNO TV.

– 26 November: The major exhibition titled UNBOXING CALLAS: An Archival Exploration of the Dimitris Pyromallis Collection and the GNO Archive opens to the public, on the second floor of the National Library of Greece and inside the GNO Foyer.

– 2 December: The new documentary Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unsung Greek Years of Callas screens inside the Stavros Niarchos Hall.

– 7 December: The installation titled Visualising the Voice of Callas opens inside the GNO Foyer.

– 16 December: The video recital Maria Callas in Greece, 1937-1945: The Repertoire Never Heard… premieres on GNO TV.

The GNO tribute to Maria Callas launched this past April with Cherubini’s Medea before continuing with the first part of UNBOXING CALLAS in May and the opera gala at the Odeon of Herodes Attticus in September. The GNO Maria Callas tribute programme is sponsored by the PPC (Public Power Corporation). This programme is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the GNO’s artistic outreach.

26 November 2023 – 10 January 2024
UNBOXING CALLAS: An Archival Exploration of the Dimitris Pyromallis Collection and the GNO Archive – an exhibition
The exhibition opens to the public on 26 November 2023, at 17.00.
National Library of Greece Second Floor & Greek National Opera Foyer – SNFCC
10.00-21.00 daily

Maria Callas tribute programme curator: Giorgos Koumendakis
UNBOXING CALLAS curator: Vassilis Zidianakis / ATOPOS cvc
Curatorial associate: Steffi Stouri
Consultant: Dimitris Pyromallis
Scientific research: Sophia Kompotiati

With the artists: Angeliki Bozou, Petros Efstathiadis, Panayotis Evangelidis, Alexis Fidetzis – Malvina Panagiotidi, Eleftheria Kotzaki, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Lykourgos Porfyris, Panos Profitis, Marios Stamatis, and Maria Varela

In partnership with ATOPOS cvc

As part of the second phase of the Greek National Opera’s visual arts programme marking the centennial of Maria Callas’ birth, the Greek National Opera presents the exhibition titled UNBOXING CALLAS: An Archival Exploration of the Dimitris Pyromallis Collection and the GNO Archive in partnership with ATOPOS cvc and the Atopos Unbound programme. This exhibition forms part of the 2023 UNESCO Maria Callas Anniversary proposed by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

Taking the donation of the Dimitris Pyromallis Collection to the Greek National Opera Archive as his point of departure, ATOPOS cvc Artistic Director Vassilis Zidianakis invites us to discover the legendary La Divina anew by means of an artistic act of unboxing. The exhibition fosters the feel of an open-access archive within which the curatorial team invite artists, conservators, archivists, and researchers to work, opening up its archival boxes to discover stories, memories, and objects relating to Callas but also the famous artist herself, as well as the ways in which she is still an inspiration in the fields of contemporary research, academic study, and artistic creation.

Exhibited on the second floor of the National Library of Greece (NLG) will be the Dimitris Pyromallis Collection in its entirety –discography, bibliography, rich photographic materials, and objects– alongside items drawn from the GNO’s historical archive that now also includes the photographic output of Kleisthenis Daskalakos relating to the GNO performances Maria Callas gave at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus (Norma in 1960 and Medea in 1961), and items from the archives of Leonidas Zoras and Achilleas Mamakis that now belong to the GNO, as well as parts of the Gagelmann collection presented in partnership with the NLG. Exhibited alongside these archival materials will be original works by eleven contemporary artists – works inspired by the Dimitris Pyromallis Collection.

Presented in parallel inside the ground floor Foyer of the Greek National Opera will be an original artwork by Alexis Fidetzis and Malvina Panagiotidi.

Running alongside this UNBOXING CALLAS exhibition for its duration will be a parallel programme featuring preservation practices (conservation and archiving), presentations, discussions, performances, and performative lectures, as well as tours led by the artists, curators, and other team members.

Full details of the parallel events programme are to be announced soon.

Free entry. Places must be booked in advance via ticketservices.gr
Places can be booked from Thursday, 16 November 2023 at 9.00.

Organised by the GNO, in partnership with the SNFCC and NLG
Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)
Lead Donor of the GNO & Maria Callas Tribute Donor: THE STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION
Technical equipment kindly provided by Samsung

2 December 2023
Screening
Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unsung Greek Years of Callas
A documentary by Vasilis Louras
Stavros Niarchos Hall of the GNO – SNFCC
Starts at: 18.30

Concept, research, script: Vasilis Louras
Direction: Michalis Asthenidis, Vasilis Louras
Producer: Stella Angeletou
Production management artistic associate: Io Kalochristou
Research consultants: Aris Christofellis, Sophia Kompotiati

A GNO and ESCAPE co-production

On 2 December 2023 inside the Stavros Niarchos Hall, as part of celebrations marking the centennial anniversary of Maria Callas’ birth, the Greek National Opera –in partnership with ESCAPE Productions– is to present a new documentary titled Mary, Marianna, Maria: The Unsung Greek Years of Callas on the little-known spell that the greatest opera artist of the 20th century spent in Greece. Conceived, researched, and written by Vasilis Louras, co-directed by Michalis Asthenidis and Vasilis Louras, and produced by Stella Angeletou, the documentary seeks to shed light on the years in which Callas came of age as a woman and as an artist –that is, in Athens during the Second World War– but also on the years after 1957 when the diva, by then renowned internationally, reconnected with Greece.

Her foremost artistic achievements and little-known debuts, the figures who so influenced her, and the major landmarks in her development as an artist, but also the prevailing social and political circumstances in Greece during World War II, the Greek Civil War milieu of the 1940s and ’50s, and the unjust attacks she endured – these are the key narrative threads used to tell the story of the troubled, novel-like life of Callas, who always walked the line between tragedy and triumph.

Making use of rare archival documentation, interviews, and other audio materials, this documentary seeks to tell the story of Callas’ early years – the story of a triumph achieved through strength of character and talent, hard work and dedication, a story that saw her defy every difficulty and all the abusive behaviour she faced.

While the trauma of the war would trail Callas throughout her life, it is nevertheless quite clear that the foundations for her later artistic achievements were laid during those difficult years she spent in Athens. And it is not just that she was trained in the city by Elvira de Hidalgo – it is also that she gained invaluable on-stage and performance experience through her appearances at the Greek National Opera. And, on a more personal level, it was during those eight years that she tapped the inner strength she needed to transform every difficulty, every challenge, and every onslaught into the resources and grit she would tap later in life.

This documentary is included in the Greek National Opera’s Maria Callas Tribute, which forms part of the 2023 UNESCO Maria Callas Anniversary proposed by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. The Maria Callas Tribute programme is curated by GNO Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis.

Tickets: 10€ • Advance bookings: the GNO Box Office and ticketservices.gr

Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)
Lead Donor of the GNO & Maria Callas Tribute Donor: THE STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION

7-21 December 2023
Installation
Visualising the Voice of Maria Callas
Greek National Opera Foyer – SNFCC
10.00-21.00 daily
Opens: Thursday, 7 December 2023, at 17.00

Project lead: Panagiotis Parthenios, Professor of Digital Media in Architectural Design and Head of the Digital Media Lab (DMLab) at the Technical University of Crete School of Architecture

A GNO partnership with the Digital Media Lab (DMLab) – Technical University of Crete

As part of the MoU between the GNO and the Technical University of Crete, and following on from the “Interactive 3D Model of the Main Stage and Backstage Areas of the Greek National Opera” research project, a pioneering educational workshop titled Visualising the Voice of Maria Callas is being jointly organised by the two institutions. The resulting creations are to be exhibited from 7 to 21 December inside the GNO Foyer at the SNFCC, and then in digital form on GNO TV. In the spring of 2024, they are also to be presented in an exhibition space in Chania.

On the occasion of the celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Maria Callas, and making best use of the outcomes delivered by the preceding research project, this workshop will focus on further broadening the relationships between architecture and music, space and sound, and –through the use of new digital media– will seek to experimentally visualise the very sound of Maria Callas. More specifically, the aim of this workshop is to offer participants the opportunity to understand the use of creative new media tools. Participants will experiment with the three-dimensional surfaces (3D point clouds) of the scanned interior spaces of the GNO that resulted from the earlier research project, and seek ways of capturing interactions between the voice of Maria Callas and the spaces of the Greek National Opera. This will lead to the creation of virtual and hybrid installations that, taken as a whole, will illuminate this iconic figure from an entirely different perspective.

This workshop is being organised by the Greek National Opera in partnership with the Digital Media Lab (DMLab) – Technical University of Crete.

Free entry.

Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)
Lead Donor of the GNO & Maria Callas Tribute Donor: THE STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION
Technical equipment kindly provided by NOVA ICT

16 December 2023 – 31 December 2024
GNO TV
Maria Callas in Greece, 1937-1945
The Repertoire Never Heard…
Video recital

Curator: Aris Christofellis
Lighting: Dimitris Koutas

With the soloists: Fanie Antonelou, Artemis Bogri, Vassiliki Karayanni, Maria Kostraki, Nina Koufochristou, Violetta Lousta, Chrissa Maliamani, Mary-Ellen Nesi, and Tassos Apostolou
Piano: Sofia Tamvakopoulou

As part of the celebrations marking the centennial anniversary of Callas’ birth, the Greek National Opera presents a video recital featuring the repertoire performed by Maria Kalogeropoulou in Athens from 1937 through until 1945, either for her conservatoire exams, or as part of production performances, auditions, events, and recitals. The video recital is set to premiere on 16 December 2023 on GNO TV and will be available to stream for free through until 31 December 2024 here: www.nationalopera.gr/gnotv.

The eminent opera artist and Callas expert Aris Christofellis presents a video recital produced under his artistic direction. Featuring performances by the emerging and established soloists Fanie Antonelou, Artemis Bogri, Vassiliki Karayanni, Maria Kostraki, Nina Koufochristou, Violetta Lousta, Chrissa Maliamani, and Mary-Ellen Nesi, the recital is a unique tribute offering both international audiences and coming generations an audio-visual treasure trove capturing –in chronological order, and meticulous historical detail– the “Greek” repertoire of Maria Callas. Sofia Tamvakopoulou performs on the piano. Also featuring the bass Tassos Apostolou.

Great arias of the repertoire, operas she would never sing again, Tosca and Cavalleria rusticana translated into Greek, songs by Greek composers, and popular “easy-listening” hits of the time –such as the celebrated “La Paloma”– comprise the “first, formative repertoire” of Callas’ career, shaped during those years in which she laid the foundations for her later professional path that would take her to the very top.

The arias and songs to be performed as part of this tribute will offer modern-day audiences a complete overview of her repertoire across the eight years she spent in Athens, and serve as invaluable touchstones for understanding the highly particular and pivotal nature of her training and early professional appearances. They also affirm the unprecedented abilities of the then still up-and-coming singer, and the influence Greece had on forging her star quality.

True to the spirit of those times, the works will be performed in the Greek language (in point of fact, in the exact same translations Callas herself sang), and it is worth noting here that most of these works were never to be performed again by the soprano at any point in her ensuing career. It is on precisely these works –the ones we have never heard her perform, and those she sang in Greek translation– that this tribute will focus its attentions.

This video recital will be free to stream on GNO TV.

Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)
Lead Donor of the GNO & Founding Donor of the GNO TV:
THE STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION