The music from “Madame Butterfly” and other major operas is known to Greek audiences largely through the recorded performances of Maria Callas, the US-born Greek artist who died in 1977 and is still revered here.

Late Thursday, it hosted an open-air performance of “Madame Butterfly” to launch Greece’s main summer theater and arts festival, dedicated this year to Callas on the centenary of her birth in Manhattan on December 2, 1923. She died of a heart attack at her home in Paris at age 53.

Officially known as the Athens Epidaurus Festival, the summer concerts and plays are also held at the ancient theater of Epidaurus, the UNESCO world heritage site in the Peloponnese. Much of the program was chosen to complement the centenary celebrations.

“It’s all part of the year’s celebrations marking the 100 years … since the birth of the great diva of opera,” Evangelatos said.

Finally free of constraints imposed by the pandemic, the festival has been expanded this year to include new venues and additional collaboration with overseas artists, festivals and theater companies. Organizers also created a new online platform to help Greek performers seek opportunities abroad.

“One of the main objectives of the festival has always been to be outward-looking,” Evangelatos told reporters during a recent presentation of this year’s festival. “We don’t want to just bring artists from abroad, we want to build collaboration and relationships.”

The Greek National Opera produced “Madame Butterfly,” choosing French director Olivier Py and the Italian choreographer Daniel Izzo. The title role was given to soprano Anna Sohn, who on Thursday gave the first of four scheduled performances.

Sohn partnered with Italian tenor Andrea Carè for a sparse interpretation of the Italian classic, featuring giant helium-filled balloons, dancers in head-to-toe white makeup and time-bending backdrops that included scenes of Japan’s World War II nuclear devastation and modern banner ads for major US commercial brands.

Publicist Constance Shuman, who promotes the work of the Greek National Opera in the United States, said a performance by the company was a fitting start for the festival in the year marking what would have been Callas’ 100th birthday.

Born Maria Kalogeropoulos, the singer made her professional debut with the GNO in Athens as an 18-year-old student.

“When she became internationally known, she always came back here, and she really is emblematic of what this opera company is about,” Shuman said.

“This is the opening of the Maria Callas year, but her early years are not known about by a lot of people,” she said. “So this is a chance to tell people about how Greece and the Greek National Opera contributed to her becoming Maria Callas.” [AP]

Source: Ekathimerini.com