All events celebrating the Callas anniversary:

Opera

 

Luigi Cherubini: Medea

25, 27, 30 April & 2, 4, 9 May 2023
Starts at 19.30 (Sunday at 18.30)
Stavros Niarchos Hall of the GNO – SNFCC

Conductor: Philippe Auguin
Director, sets: David McVicar
Revival director: Jonathon Loy / Associate set designer: Hannah Postlethwaite
Costumes: Doey Lüthi
Movement director: Jo Meredith
Lighting: Paule Constable
Projection design: S. Katy Tucker
Chorus master: Agathangelos Georgakatos

Creonte: Yanni Yannissis
Glauce: Vassiliki Karayanni
Giasone: Giorgio Berrugi
Medea: Anna Pirozzi
Neris: Nefeli Kotseli / Captain of the Guard: Nikolas Douros
First maid: Despoina Skarlatou / Second maid: Martha Sotiriou

With the Orchestra and Chorus of the Greek National Opera

 

The flagship GNO event of the celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Maria Callas is a production of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea, to be presented on 25, 27, 30 April and 2, 4, 9 May 2023 inside the Stavros Niarchos Hall, conducted by Philippe Auguin and directed by David McVicar. It is a major international GNO co-production with three leading North American opera houses –the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago– made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the GNO’s artistic outreach.

Overlooked for many decades, Cherubini’s Medea –first presented in Paris in 1797– was brought back into the limelight when Maria Callas first performed the title role in 1953, in Florence. The revival was a huge success and, thanks to Callas’ extraordinary musical and acting abilities, the music world rediscovered a thrilling work.

Medea is an opera inextricably linked with Greece – based on the Euripidean tragedy of the same title, the performance given by Maria Callas as part of the historic GNO production at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus left an indelible mark on the modern Greek cultural landscape.

In this new production of Medea, the title role is to be performed –for the first time in her career– by one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of our times: Anna Pirozzi. Joining her are the soloists Yanni Yannissis, Vassiliki Karayanni, Giorgio Berrugi, Nefeli Kotseli, Nikolas Douros, Despoina Skarlatou, and Martha Sotiriou, as well as the Orchestra and Chorus of the Greek National Opera.

Production sponsor: PIRAEUS BANK
Lead Donor of the GNO & Production donor: STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION

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Multi-format art installation

UNBOXING CALLAS: From Callas to Medea – An Installation in Three Acts

4 May – 9 June 2023
Greek National Opera Foyer – SNFCC

Artistic concept and execution: Panos Profitis
Cinematography: Yorgos Athanasiou
Dance: Vera Zouka
Curation: Vassilis Zidianakis / ATOPOS cvc
Curatorial associate: Steffy Stouri
Research consultant: Sophia Kompotiati

As part of the celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Maria Callas, the Greek National Opera presents UNBOXING CALLAS: an arts programme inspired by the act of unboxing made popular by online communities – that is, a ritual process documenting first contact with an object. Taking the new production of Medea as its point of departure, this first part of the UNBOXING CALLAS programme sees Vassilis Zidianakis invite the visual artist Panos Profitis to undertake a multi-format art experiment titled From Callas to Medea – An Installation in Three Acts, to be installed for the first time inside the foyer spaces of the Greek National Opera at the SNFCC.

Core to the work is Callas’ striking, high-relief profile, through which the story of Medea unfolds in the sculptural installation created by Panos Profitis. Meanwhile, the fifth-floor Foyer of the GNO will host a presentation of archival materials relating to the production of Medea at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus that starred Maria Callas, alongside materials from performances of Medea given in Dallas, London, and Milan. Drawings and fragments of the costumes by Yannis Tsarouchis, as well as the notes and director’s books of Alexis Minotis enter into discourse with select sketches and sculptural elements (casts and moulds) by Panos Profitis in what is a diachronic exploration of artistic takes on the Medea myth, without ever losing sight of how these intertwine with the legend surrounding Callas.

The following three acts comprise the installation:

• a sculptural installation, set on the ground and fifth floors of the Foyer;
• a video installation, running simultaneously on all the screens of the Foyer, across all its floors; and
• a performance that actuates the installation as a whole.

We would like to thank the Performing Arts Department at the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA) of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (MIET) for kindly granting us use of their materials.

Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)
Lead Donor of the GNO & Production donor: STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION

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Opera Gala 

Callas at the Herodium

September 2023
Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Soloists: TBA
Conductor: TBA

With the GNO Orchestra

 

Maria Callas’ performance career in Greece intersects with the Odeon of Herodes Atticus across two separate eras. In July 1944, one year before she left Athens for New York, Maria Kalogeropoulou would perform the role of Smaragda in the Manolis Kalomiris opera The Masterbuilder at the venue, conducted by the composer himself and directed by Socrates Karandinos; days later, in August 1944, she would also play Leonora there in Beethoven’s Fidelio, conducted by Hans Hörner and directed by Oscar Walleck.

A full thirteen years later, in 1957, and having since conquered the world, Maria Meneghini-Callas would return to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus to give an historic recital at the Athens Festival, featuring arias from Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Giuseppe Verdi’s La forza del destino and Il trovatore, Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet, conducted by Antonino Votto.

This precise repertoire is to be presented in September 2023 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus by the Greek National Opera as part of its 2023 anniversary Gala titled Callas at the Herodium. Four internationally-renowned leading lights of the opera world will pay tribute to Maria Callas, performing arias from operas by Kalomiris, Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi, Donizetti, and Thomas that she herself performed at that very Roman venue, making full use of her remarkable vocal range and singular virtuoso abilities to leave a mark that has never been surpassed.

Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)
Lead Donor of the GNO & Production donor: STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION

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Exhibition

UNBOXING CALLAS: An Archival Exploration of the Pyromallis Collection and the GNO Archive

26 November 2023 – January 2024
Second floor of the National Library of Greece – SNFCC

Curator: Vassilis Zidianakis / ATOPOS cvc
Curatorial associate: Steffy Stouri
Consultant: Dimitris Pyromallis
Research associate: Sophia Kompotiati

With the artists: Aggeliki Bozou, Petros Efstathiadis, Panagiotis Evangelidis, Alexis Fidetzis, Eleftheria Kotzaki, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Aristeidis Lappas, Lykourgos Porfyris, Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou, Maria Varela

Appearing in the parallel events programme: Yannis Belonis, Alexandros Efklidis, Fatma Fayade, Giorgos Koumendakis, Helena Matheopoulos, Stella Kourmpana, Panaghis Pagoulatos, Tota Pritsa, Zoi Tzamtzi

 

As part of the celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Maria Callas, the Greek National Opera presents the second part of UNBOXING CALLAS, an arts programme curated by Vassilis Zidianakis inspired by the act of unboxing made popular by online communities – that is, a ritual process documenting first contact with an object.

The UNBOXING CALLAS: An Archival Exploration of the Dimitris Pyromallis Collection and the GNO Archive exhibition is inspired by the private stories, memories, and archival effects of Maria Callas, and seeks to give a collectivist artistic chronicle of her career.

The exhibited objects are drawn from the archival collections of the Greek National Opera, and from other collections it has recently acquired, such as the archive of the collector Dimitris Pyromallis dedicated to the life and art of Maria Callas, and the photographic archive of Kleisthenes. The exhibition will also be showcasing unique materials drawn from the Katina Paxinou – Alexis Minotis Archive –courtesy of the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA) of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (MIET)– exhibited alongside pieces lent by the Yannis Tsarouchis Foundation. Original works by contemporary artists, inspired by this newly-assembled archive in its entirety, will also be presented.

This is to be a performative exhibition of archival materials, with all its content presented on large worktops, as if in a large lab where researchers and artists are at work on the gathered archive – classifying, conserving, recording, cataloguing, and reinterpreting its artefacts.

The combination of various archives and original artworks within the framework of this exhibition functions as a corrective curatorial practice, both through the narratives it offers, and by means of the conservation, archival, and documentation practices used during its formulation – practices that are set to continue for the duration of the exhibition as part of a parallel programme. Furthermore, the exhibition design is thoroughly sustainable since it utilises archival boxes and existing GNO structures that are suitable for reuse. The original artworks offer access to stories and viewpoints that have been silenced or overlooked by dominant narratives, providing an opportunity for a re-examination of the legend surrounding Callas while also ensuring her artistic achievements remain ever unadulterated.

As part of the UNBOXING CALLAS arts programme, and running in parallel with this exhibition installed inside the National Library of Greece at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, a second iteration of From Callas to Medea – An Installation in Three Acts is to be presented inside the GNO Foyer at the SNFCC.

Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)
Lead Donor of the GNO & Production donor: STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION

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Screening

Mary, Mariana, Maria – The Unsung Greek Years of Callas

A documentary by Vasilis Louras

2 December 2023
Stavros Niarchos Hall of the GNO – SNFCC

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

A GNO co-production with ESCAPE Productions

 

Premiering on 2 December 2023 inside the Stavros Niarchos Hall –100 years to the day since the birth of Maria Callas– is a new documentary film about the greatest soprano of the 20th century, who took the first major steps of her career in Greece. This documentary by Vasilis Louras, co-produced by the Greek National Opera with ESCAPE Productions, focuses its attentions on the years in which she received her arts training and performed her first roles at the Greek National Opera (1937-1945), and on her three later appearances in Greece: at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (1957) as part of the Athens Festival, and at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus (1960 and 1961) with the Greek National Opera.

In 1937, when she first arrived in Greece at the age of 14, Mary Kalogeropoulou began taking singing classes at the Greek National Conservatoire, tutored by Maria Trivella. By 1938, she had made her first public appearance, at the Parnassos Literary Society as part of the Conservatoire’s annual showcase. 1939 saw her enter the most important phase of her training, when she enrolled at the Athens Conservatoire to study under the legendary Spanish soprano Elvira de Hidalgo.

One year later, Hidalgo recommended her to Kostis Bastias, Director of the Greek National Opera and the National (then known as the Royal) Theatre of Greece, proposing that he hire Kalogeropoulou at the Opera as a member of the chorus, thus allowing her to earn the funds she needed to continue her studies. Her first contract with the Greek National Opera is dated 20 June 1940, with the 17-year-old soprano signing her name as Mariana Kalogeropoulou. From 1940 through until 1945 (when she would return to New York), during the dark days of the Second World War, Kalogeropoulou would take on her first major roles. Despite her difficult relationship with her mother, the hostility she faced from a portion of her peers, and the injustices she suffered following the German withdrawal, Maria would go on to leave Greece in September 1945 a fully-primed prima donna, widely known among devotees of the Greek National Opera in Athens, with a sound training and a great deal of experience performing on stage. It is certainly no coincidence that, following an audition just a few months later, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City offered the young soloist her first contract. In 1957, Maria Meneghini-Callas would return to Athens to open the Athens Festival at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, but found herself the target of shameful attacks made by the Greek media and political establishment of the time. In 1960, by which time she went by the name Maria Callas, she accepted an invitation extended by Kostis Bastias to perform the title role in a production of Bellini’s Normaat the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, and the lead in Cherubini’s Medea at the same venue the following year.

Through the use of archival materials, interviews with both her peers and with persons who experienced the events in question first-hand, and interviews given later by Callas herself, this documentary seeks to gather together snippets of information from every possible source, as well as details that record, recount, and cast light on that untold –yet pivotal for her later evolution– time in Callas’ life that has been underestimated or even ignored by dozens of attempts to present her life story to date.

Sponsor: PPC (Public Power Corporation)
Lead Donor of the GNO & Production donor: STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION

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GNO TV

Maria Callas in Greece, 1937-1945: The Repertoire Never Heard…

Video recital
From December 2023 on GNO TV

The Greek National Opera presents a video recital –to be screened for free on GNO TV– 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.

Great arias of the repertoire, operas she would never sing again, Tosca and Cavalleria rusticana translated into Greek, songs by Greek composers, and popular light music 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 contemporary 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.

Performing this repertoire are established and emerging Greek opera singers in what 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.

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

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Educational workshop

Visualising the Voice of Maria Callas

A GNO partnership with the Digital Media Lab (DmLab) of the Technical University of Crete
September – December 2023

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. 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. The resulting creations are to be exhibited in digital form on GNO TV, as well as in fit-for-purpose exhibition spaces located in both Athens and Chania.

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

Project Lead: Panagiotis Parthenios
Professor of Digital Media in Architectural Design
Head of the Digital Media Lab – DmLab
School of Architecture | Technical University of Crete

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

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GNO products

 A Collection Devoted to Maria Callas

Available from the SNFCC STORE at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center and on snfccstore.com

As part of the celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of Maria Callas, the Greek National Opera presents an original collection of products mainly inspired by her appearances in Greece. Based on rare photographs and other documentary materials, these GNO products stand apart for their high aesthetics and quality, and come in shades of black, beige, and gold. The following products –ranging in price from 7 to 90 euros– are available to buy from the SNFCC STORE at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center and on snfccstore.com:

• Maria Callas 2023 Calendar in a vinyl disc slipcase. Each of the twelve months are illustrated by major moments from Callas’ appearances in Greece, or objects from the Dimitris Pyromallis collection. Limited edition.
• An art print (available in large and small poster sizes) of the printed programme cover for the 1961 GNO production of Medea at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus starring Maria Callas.
• Three rare photographs of Maria Callas appearing in GNO productions of Tosca, Norma, and Medea, printed on acrylic glass.
• A special-edition candle inspired by Medea, and scented with the wild lilies of Colchis – an allusion to the colchicine poison with which, according to Greek myth, Medea infused a deadly robe embroidered with gold. The candle is made with natural oils and comes with a 100% cotton wick (lead free), while its packaging echoes the sets designed by David McVicar.
• A study by Maria-Olga Vlachou based on the designs produced by Yannis Tsarouchis for the 1961 production of Medea; a photograph capturing the hands of Maria Callas; a drawing by Yannis Tsarouchis; handwritten letters exchanged by Callas and Pier Paolo Pasolini (drawn from the Dimitris Pyromallis collection) – all served as the inspiration for a series of silk scarves, bags, and notebooks.

Lead Donor of the GNO: STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION