Greek National Opera
Encyclopedia
The Greek National Opera is the country's state lyric opera company, located at 59 Akadimias Street in central
Athens
. It is a public corporation under the supervision of the Greek Ministry of Culture and administered by the Board of Trustees and its Artistic Director.
The organization is responsible for a wide variety of activities, including the presentation of opera performances, ballet, and musical theatre; in addition, symphony concerts, special presentations of opera and ballet performances for children, and the Opera and Ballet Studio help young artists achieve professional standards.
The GNO has created and now organizes a national archive of music, a music library, and a museum with costumes, stage models, musical scores and many items from great performances presented by the company. The company tours both within Greece and internationally.
Recently, the Stavros Niarchos
foundation has announced that it will fund the construction of a new venue for the Greek National Opera, the Greek National Library and a cultural and environmental park at the Faliron area in Attica
.
, Turkey
and Romania
, presenting operas such as Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Donizetti’s La favorite
and Lucia di Lammermoor
and Bellini
’s La sonnambula
.
After 1924, following the its tour of the United States
and establishment as a significant cultural institution at home and abroad, the Greek government recognized the company’s effort by providing support. It was in 1939 that the Greek National Opera was formally established under the management of Kostis Bastias, and from 1944 the company operated as an autonomous organization in its present form.
operetta, Die Fledermaus
. Two days prior to the declaration of the Second World War, the company presented Puccini
’s Madama Butterfly
in the presence of Puccini’s son.
Foremost among the many singers to take part in performances for the National Opera and later successfully establish reputations abroad is Maria Callas
, the greatest of the country's opera performers and a leading singer of the century. Born in the United States, she signed her first professional contract with the Greek National Opera on June 20, 1940, and returned twenty years later, with Kostas Bastias once again, for performances at The Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus
. In 1960, she sang Norma
in the Bellini
opera, and in 1961 took the role of Medea
in Cherubini
’s Medea
. Other important singers included Elena Souliotis
, Kostas Paskalis
, and Nicola Zaccaria
.
; its first presentation was Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice
, and in conjunction with the Greek opera company a number of famous international performers of all types have performed here down the decades. In its early years, helping to establish the Festival as a major international event were conductors Tullio Serafin
and Nicola Rescigno
, singers such as Ghena Dimitrova
, Maria Chiara
, Giuseppe Taddei
, and Rolando Panerai
, and well-known directors and set designers such as Giancarlo Menotti, Dinos Giannopoulos, Spyros Evangelatos, Nikos Georgiadis, Dionyssios Fotopoulos, and Nikos Petropoulos. Recent Festival productions at the Herodion Ancient Theatre have included many of the standard operatic works, with Kostas Paskalis
featuring in major roles.
Its first "Ballet Evening" was presented in 1960; this is aside from its participation in operas and operettas, so the company prepares several evenings of ballet each winter season and performs at the Athens Festival
each summer. In addition to the standard classic and romantic repertory, contemporary dance by Greek and foreign professionals is established as a feature. With help from the state, the Ballet acquired its own fuller rehearsal studio for training purposes and consequently has improved its artistic standard. Particularly important in her contribution to the development of ballet at the National Opera was Tatiana Mamaki
.
Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. It is a public corporation under the supervision of the Greek Ministry of Culture and administered by the Board of Trustees and its Artistic Director.
The organization is responsible for a wide variety of activities, including the presentation of opera performances, ballet, and musical theatre; in addition, symphony concerts, special presentations of opera and ballet performances for children, and the Opera and Ballet Studio help young artists achieve professional standards.
The GNO has created and now organizes a national archive of music, a music library, and a museum with costumes, stage models, musical scores and many items from great performances presented by the company. The company tours both within Greece and internationally.
Performance venues
The performances of the Greek National Opera are presented on four stages:- Olympia Theatre, with its Maria Callas Central Stage is the main location for opera and ballet.
- Acropol Theatre, with the New Stage and the Children’s Stage, primarily presents operetta and opera for children.
- The Lyric Stage is an experimental studio theatre.
Recently, the Stavros Niarchos
Stavros Niarchos
Stavros Spyros Niarchos was a Greek shipping tycoon, sometimes known as "The Golden Greek." In 1952, Stavros Niarchos built the first supertankers capable of transporting large quantities of oil, and subsequently earned millions of dollars as global demand for his ships increased.- Early life :He...
foundation has announced that it will fund the construction of a new venue for the Greek National Opera, the Greek National Library and a cultural and environmental park at the Faliron area in Attica
Attica
Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...
.
The company’s history
During the late 1880s, the first Greek Opera was presented at the old Bukura Theatre in Athens. Between 1888 and 1890 the Greek Opera toured regions with substantial Greek diaspora populations such as EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, presenting operas such as Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Donizetti’s La favorite
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
and Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
and Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
’s La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
.
After 1924, following the its tour of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and establishment as a significant cultural institution at home and abroad, the Greek government recognized the company’s effort by providing support. It was in 1939 that the Greek National Opera was formally established under the management of Kostis Bastias, and from 1944 the company operated as an autonomous organization in its present form.
First opera performances of the Greek National Opera
On 5 March 1940 the company had its first official opening with the Johann StraussJohann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
operetta, Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
. Two days prior to the declaration of the Second World War, the company presented Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
’s Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
in the presence of Puccini’s son.
Foremost among the many singers to take part in performances for the National Opera and later successfully establish reputations abroad is Maria Callas
Maria Callas
Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
, the greatest of the country's opera performers and a leading singer of the century. Born in the United States, she signed her first professional contract with the Greek National Opera on June 20, 1940, and returned twenty years later, with Kostas Bastias once again, for performances at The Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus
Epidaurus
Epidaurus was a small city in ancient Greece, at the Saronic Gulf. Two modern towns bear the name Epidavros : Palaia Epidavros and Nea Epidavros. Since 2010 they belong to the new municipality of Epidavros, part of the peripheral unit of Argolis...
. In 1960, she sang Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
in the Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
opera, and in 1961 took the role of Medea
Medea
Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
in Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
’s Medea
Médée (Cherubini)
Médée is a French language opéra-comique by Luigi Cherubini.The libretto by François-Benoît Hoffmann was based on Euripides' tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille's play Médée....
. Other important singers included Elena Souliotis
Elena Souliotis
Elena Souliotis was an operatic soprano."-Biography:Elena Souliotis was born in Athens, Greece of Greek and Russian parents but moved with her family to Argentina at an early age...
, Kostas Paskalis
Kostas Paskalis
Kostas Paskalis was a Greek opera singer, one of the leading baritones of the 1960s and 1970s in Europe, particularly associated with the Italian repertory....
, and Nicola Zaccaria
Nicola Zaccaria
Nicola Zaccaria , born Nicholas Angelos Zachariou was a Greek bass.-Career:Born in Piraeus, Zaccaria studied at the Athens Conservatory where he enjoyed his debut in 1949, aged 26. He sang at La Scala in 1953 and his position as a mainstay of the bass operatic repertoire was assured thereafter. He...
.
The GNO at the Athens Festival
Since 1955, when this summer festival first began, the Greek National opera has presented special performances for the ancient Roman-era amphitheatre, the Odeon of Herodes AtticusOdeon of Herodes Atticus
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure located on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It was built in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla...
; its first presentation was Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
, and in conjunction with the Greek opera company a number of famous international performers of all types have performed here down the decades. In its early years, helping to establish the Festival as a major international event were conductors Tullio Serafin
Tullio Serafin
-Biography:Tullio Serafin was a leading Italian opera conductor with a long career and a very broad repertoire who revived many 19th century bel canto operas by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti to become staples of 20th century repertoire...
and Nicola Rescigno
Nicola Rescigno
Nicola Rescigno was an Italian-American conductor, particularly associated with the Italian opera repertory. Opera News said that "Rescigno was a seminal figure in the history of opera in America, a maestro and mentor who shaped the destiny and reputation of two major U.S...
, singers such as Ghena Dimitrova
Ghena Dimitrova
Ghena Dimitrova was a Bulgarian operatic soprano. Her voice was known for its power and extension used in operatic roles such as Turandot in a career spanning four decades.-Early career:...
, Maria Chiara
Maria Chiara
Maria Chiara is an Italian lyric soprano.She was born in Oderzo and studied at the Venice Conservatory and in Turin with tenor Ricardo Cassinelli and soprano Maria Carbone...
, Giuseppe Taddei
Giuseppe Taddei
Giuseppe Taddei was an Italian baritone, who performed mostly the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi....
, and Rolando Panerai
Rolando Panerai
Rolando Panerai Italian baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, he enjoyed a long and distinguished career in both comic and dramatic roles.Rolando Panerai was born in Campi Bisenzio, near Florence, Italy....
, and well-known directors and set designers such as Giancarlo Menotti, Dinos Giannopoulos, Spyros Evangelatos, Nikos Georgiadis, Dionyssios Fotopoulos, and Nikos Petropoulos. Recent Festival productions at the Herodion Ancient Theatre have included many of the standard operatic works, with Kostas Paskalis
Kostas Paskalis
Kostas Paskalis was a Greek opera singer, one of the leading baritones of the 1960s and 1970s in Europe, particularly associated with the Italian repertory....
featuring in major roles.
Ballet and Chorus
The Chorus of the Greek National Opera, in existence since 1939, is composed of professional singers. In addition to the major operatic works, its repertory covers a broad range of Greek composers, operettas, oratorios and many religious musical works, also taking in the twentieth century classical repertoire.Its first "Ballet Evening" was presented in 1960; this is aside from its participation in operas and operettas, so the company prepares several evenings of ballet each winter season and performs at the Athens Festival
Athens Festival
Athens - Epidaurus Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in Athens and Epidaurus, from May to October. It is one of the most famous festivals in Greece. The festival includes musical, theatrical and other cultural events....
each summer. In addition to the standard classic and romantic repertory, contemporary dance by Greek and foreign professionals is established as a feature. With help from the state, the Ballet acquired its own fuller rehearsal studio for training purposes and consequently has improved its artistic standard. Particularly important in her contribution to the development of ballet at the National Opera was Tatiana Mamaki
Tatiana Mamaki
Tatiana Varouti Mamaki was a notable Greek dancer and choreographer.- Life and work :She studied dance in Athens at Raymons School and later in Poland where she worked at the Warsaw Opera as a dancer ; in 1939 she returned to Athens to work for the Greek National Opera.On 5 March 1940 the Greek...
.