7/21/10

Standing up to the crisis

The Greek National Opera responds with “Aida,” its second production of the summer season at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus

By Olga Sella

HAPPENING. Yesterday afternoon Athenians and tourists who braved the scorching sun and took a walk around the streets of the city were suddenly treated to the sound of music. On the upper level of a double-decker bus, members of the Greek National Opera band had set up shop and were playing extracts from the “Triumphal March” of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida,” which the GNO was staging at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

The initiative was part of the company’s drive to promote yet another of its productions, its second this summer. For the Athenians it was a unique experience. It was a surprise even for the country’s number one citizen, Greek President Karolos Papoulias, who, together with members of his staff, stood on his balcony and waved to the GNO musicians.

The reactions of others treated to the experience were also a pleasure to behold. Some looked around perplexed, wondering where the music was coming from; others swayed to the music or danced with their tots on their shoulders. Some waved to the musicians and others smiled, welcoming the soothing balm of the music. Everyone was, without doubt, happy at the unexpected event, some even hoping that hearing the melodies of a classical opera on the streets of the city was something that could happen every day.

The Greek National Opera has survived a gauntlet of obstacles and misfortune in recent months. It is one of a long list of state-run organisations with budgetary woes that came very close to shutting down. Yet, it seems that the GNO is hitting back at the crisis by employing imaginative and low-cost tactics to promote its presence in the everyday lives of Athenians, a strategy that the new President of the Board Nikos Mourkoyiannis is banking on. Even the sceptics, those who turned their noses up at the event, experienced a change of heart by the time the musical bus had completed its tour (Academias Street, Parliament building, Maximos Mansion, Presidential Mansion, Rigillis Street, Ministry of Finance, General Accounting Office and Athens City Hall). Everyone aboard the bus – musicians, GNO staff, journalists, photographers and cameramen – emerged from the experience convinced that action and initiative are the best antidote for ailing organisations in these straightened times.

Chief conductor Lukas Karytinos suggested as much when he said that “the mechanisms of the Greek National Opera, when properly managed, have a structure and sense of continuity that should be envied by many other state organisations. Instead of looking at the GNO with pity, the state ought to be using its initiatives as an example.”

A historical opera

Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida” was first staged in Greece in 1958 on the occasion of the inauguration of the present-day flagship of the Greek National Opera, the Olympia Theatre. This week, the GNO is presenting the opera as its second production of the season (it is the first time since 1969 that it has prepared two separate productions for one season at the open-air Roman-era theatre), and it is based on a landmark production presented by the company in 1991 and directed by Dino Yannopoulos. This year’s effort, which runs July 23, 24 and 28, is a revival of that production, adapted by director Panaghis Pagoulatos and conducted by Lukas Karytinos. And, in another record-breaking effort, this “Aida” – a historical opera that premiered at the Cairo Opera on December 24, 1871 – took just one month to put together.