Confronting the myth created by Callas

On August 4, 1961, the yacht Christina glides into the small harbor of Epidaurus, successful the eastbound Peloponnese. Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis get two days earlier the premiere of a accumulation already hailed arsenic the lawsuit of the summer. The newspapers corroborate the anticipation. “Fever successful Epidaurus, where Callas rehearses ‘Medea,’” writes Eleftheria connected August 5, priming the nationalist for “a uncommon creator delight for audiences and a large creator accomplishment for its creators.”

Callas comes to Epidaurus having already “revived,” to large acclaim, Luigi Cherubini’s long-neglected opera astatine the 1953 Florence May Festival. In Dallas, successful 1958, she electrifies audiences successful the aforesaid relation under the absorption of Alexis Minotis, with sets and costumes by Yannis Tsarouchis. These precocious points people the opening of her profound transportation with “Medea” – 1 that galore expect will scope its apex successful the “sanctuary” of the past theater.

La Divina allows herself lone a fewer hours of remainder earlier requesting a costume fitting. She seeks comfortableness and state of movement. Tsarouchis, pencil successful hand, records each remark. Kathimerini would aboriginal enactment that “the harmony of colors and forms captures some oculus and bosom astatine archetypal glance,” affirming that the painter’s vision was not simply functional but distinctly artistic. The formal rehearsal begins astatine 8 successful the evening. Callas appears successful a acheronian bluish patterned formal – calm, focused, and successful striking form.

The premiere connected August 6 fulfills each expectation. The past theater fills with 15,000 spectators, galore having traveled from afar to witness “Medea” astatine the very ιστοσελίδα where the drama’s roots lie. Contemporary accounts speak of a “miracle,” of a show bordering connected ritual. The 2nd performance, connected August 13, surpasses adjacent the first. Journalists estimation an assemblage of 17,500, while some 2,000 radical scope the gates without securing a ticket. That “Medea” – of Callas, Minotis, Tsarouchis, and choreographer Maria Hors – has since entered the realm of 20th-century creator myth. Who would situation measurement themselves against it 65 years later, and successful the very aforesaid space?

A reproduction of Yannis Tsarouchis’ costume sketch for Medea successful the opera’s third act. The archetypal worldly is preserved successful the Costume Collection of the Royal Opera House. [Nikos Kokkalias]

The Greek National Opera’s “Medea,” to beryllium presented for 1 nighttime lone successful Epidaurus connected June 20, has already go the archetypal large success of this year’s Athens Epidaurus Festival. Within 24 hours of summons income opening, much than 7,000 tickets were sold; little than a week later, astir each 10,000 available seats had been claimed, leaving lone a fistful with restricted views. Prices – €200 for VIP seats – proved nary deterrent; they underscored the consciousness that audiences were not simply purchasing a ticket, but seeking to beryllium portion of a historical occasion.

The caller accumulation revisits – and seeks to reconstruct – the legendary 1961 “Medea.” The Greek National Opera team – Panaghis Pagoulatos (stage direction), Lili Pezanou (sets), Tota Pritsa (costumes), and Christos Tziogkas (lighting) – has spent months studying surviving archival material, aiming not for elemental replication but for a thoughtful recreation of an aesthetic that has ne'er been surpassed.

‘Medea’ (1961) – Greek National Opera astatine the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus. From left: Jon Vickers, Maria Callas, Kiki Morfoniou. [Kleisthenis Daskalakos /GNO Archive]

In the title role, the Italian melodramatic soprano Anna Pirozzi brings a voice already proven successful “Medea” and afloat attuned to its demands. She is joined by Jean-Francois Borras arsenic Giasone (Jason), Tassis Christoyannis arsenic Creonte (Creon), Alisa Kolosova arsenic Neris, and Danae Kontora arsenic Glauce.

Kathimerini went down the scenes, visiting the GNO workshops where the production’s humanities sets and costumes are being crafted, and spoke with the team preparing to instrumentality the opera to the past theater.

Desire and destiny

“The past theater of Epidaurus holds a precious spot successful my bosom and mind, some due to the fact that of my work arsenic a composer and my agelong acquisition arsenic a spectator of past drama,” says GNO creator manager Giorgos Koumendakis. He is referring to the determination to stage opera astatine Epidaurus – an thought that, arsenic helium recalls, had softly accompanied him for years. It had taken basal arsenic aboriginal arsenic 2017, not arsenic an administrative oregon programming objective, but arsenic something profoundly personal.

‘Interpretation has evolved – adjacent if Callas herself was, successful galore ways, strikingly modern. I stay profoundly inspired by her vision, but I besides anticipation to lend a small portion of past of my own’

The tendency was there, but its realization was acold from straightforward. Behind the vision laic sizeable creator hazard – and an adjacent greater fiscal one. “The fund for such a large-scale accumulation successful an open-air theater of this size, distant from our base, tin scope staggering levels, particularly when 1 considers that astir 400 radical – staff and collaborators – indispensable travel to and stay successful Epidaurus for respective days,” Koumendakis explains.

When it was announced that the Herod Atticus Theater would adjacent for restoration, however, Epidaurus emerged arsenic the “first and indisputable choice.” It was arsenic if circumstances themselves had cleared the path. “Given that the thematic axis of the 2025-26 play is the dialog betwixt the opera’s humanities past and its ambitious future, the ‘Medea’ of Minotis and Tsarouchis – successful which Callas erstwhile starred – became the evident choice,” helium adds.

A leafage from the directing notebooks of Alexis Minotis for ‘Medea.’

Despite the standard of the challenge, Koumendakis conveys a quiescent assurance grounded successful sustained work and hard-won experience. The enrichment of the GNO Archive with important collections – those of Dimitris Pyromallis, Nikos Petsalis-Diomidis, Polyvios Marchand, and Kleisthenis Daskalakos – has provided a solid foundation, while the insights gained from the large 2023 tribute to Callas person further strengthened the effort. With this successful mind, helium concludes, “we consciousness that – contempt the lack of immoderate filmed grounds of the 1961 accumulation – we are successful a presumption to present a reconstruction of the highest level.”

The hazard of reconstruction

Pagoulatos has assumed the formidable task of reconstructing the absorption of a accumulation that, arsenic helium puts it, “is etched successful the corporate memory.” “The top hazard I took was accepting Giorgos Koumendakis’ proposal,” helium says of the ambitious undertaking. “The work is immense – artistic, institutional, financial, technical – and it is shared by the full originative team: choreographers, acceptable designers, costume designers, lighting designers. It is simply a task that demands implicit precision, and astatine the aforesaid time, courage.”

Among the team’s cardinal sources are Minotis’ directing notebooks, used successful conjunction with the archive of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation. Yet these materials screen lone selected scenes and often relation much arsenic preparatory notes for antithetic stagings of the work. “The photographic worldly provides visual clues that align with the libretto,” Pagoulatos explains, “but there are important gaps that indispensable beryllium filled with consistency, so arsenic to sphere the coherence of the accumulation without introducing overseas elements.”

Does such a process constrain him creatively? “There is state – but within strict parameters,” helium replies. “Even when a revival is mounted by the archetypal director, the ‘living material’ inevitably changes: The performers, their voices, their personalities, their experiences – each of these transform the work. The aforesaid applies to the costumes successful this caller “Medea,” which are adapted to today’s performers while remaining faithful to Tsarouchis’ visual language. The purpose is for the 2026 assemblage to comprehend the archaic costume arsenic a symbol of its time, not arsenic something rigid oregon museum-like.”

The instrumentality of ‘Medea’ to past Epidaurus carries some the weight and the emotion of an brushwood with a space “sacred successful each sense,” arsenic Pagoulatos emphasizes. The theater itself, the tragic story – faithfully respected by the libretto and so precisely shaped by Cherubini’s euphony – make a singular acceptable of conditions. To this are added the figures who defined the production’s legacy: Minotis, for whom “tragedy was 2nd nature”; Tsarouchis, with his modern speechmaking of past iconography; and choreographer Maria Hors, “so profoundly attuned to the past spirit.” And, inevitably, Callas – “the singular improvement of the singing actress” – who remains the ultimate constituent of reference. “One tin participate this space lone with respect,” helium concludes, “with cognition and inspiration, but besides with the consciousness that 1 is attempting to ‘restore’ a monumental work – recreating what has been lost.”

And if Minotis himself were successful the audience? “I would want him to spot a show that would not preoccupy him with questions of fidelity oregon deviation,” Pagoulatos says. “Not something helium would find dated oregon irreverent, but something modern and convincing – a ‘Medea’ that tin stand alongside his own, not arsenic a replica, but arsenic a surviving continuation.”

Martha Foka, acceptable and costume decorator and a disguise maker, working connected a soldier helmet. [Nikos Kokkalias]

Pritsa, caput of the GNO costume department, has been preparing for this accumulation for a agelong time. “A modern revival presents important challenges,” she notes. “Today’s performers person very antithetic assemblage types from those of the past, which makes it hard to reproduce the archetypal patterns faithfully. At the aforesaid time, sourcing equivalent fabrics is nary casual task, arsenic the section marketplace nary longer offers materials with the aforesaid properties oregon quality. Even achieving the close colors proved complex. It is important to understand that this is not reproduction successful the strict consciousness of implicit fidelity, but alternatively a process of reinterpretation. To the modern viewer, the cloak oregon abbreviated chiton whitethorn look unfamiliar, adjacent awkward – something that does not beryllium to our time. But present costume does not simply picture an era; it preserves memory. This work does not beryllium to immoderate 1 individual. It belongs to clip – and to each those who person served it with their hands and their minds.”

Passion of a Neapolitan

By each accounts, Pirozzi – 1 of the starring sopranos of our clip – embraces challenges with wholehearted intensity, true to her Neapolitan roots. We archetypal heard her astatine the GNO during the centenary celebrations of Callas’ birth, where she delivered an outstanding “Medea”: technically assured, dramatically compelling, and profoundly passionate. “Medea is simply a demanding intelligence journey,” she reflects. “I person to implicit the relation while preserving some my vocal and intelligence health. It is casual to beryllium swept distant by the ‘dark soul’ of this woman – a truly analyzable and ambiguous figure.”

Soprano Anna Pirozzi embraces challenges with wholehearted intensity, true to her Neapolitan roots.

On June 20, she will sing successful the open-air past theater, astatine the very spot where Callas erstwhile stood. What does that mean to her? “It is simply a tremendous honor, some due to the fact that of the past of the space and due to the fact that she performed the opera there,” Pirozzi says. “My archetypal interest was the acoustics. In open-air venues, it is important to person an acoustic effect that supports the vocal demands of the role. Fortunately, that interest disappeared when I visited Epidaurus this summer. I sang a fewer phrases astatine the halfway of the theater – the acquisition was extraordinary.”

Ultimately, Pirozzi does not presumption herself against tradition but turns inward, testing her ain limits. She speaks of a equilibrium betwixt continuity and renewal. Her regard turns toward Callas – not successful imitation, but successful dialogue. “I don’t want simply to sing; I want to interpret, to enactment done the sung word. At the aforesaid time, I anticipation to write a caller chapter. We are successful the 21st century, aft all, and mentation has evolved – adjacent if Callas herself was, successful galore ways, strikingly modern. I stay profoundly inspired by her vision, but I besides anticipation to lend a small portion of past of my own: Anna Pirozzi’s ‘Medea’ – my ‘Medea’ for the 21st century.”