Renowned pianist Theodore Tzovanakis put together a programme of eight sensitive miniatures for piano. It includes one of the 24 pieces of the Children’s Album composed by Tchaikovsky according to the model of similar works of Schumann, two Schubert’s songs transcribed by Liszt from the cycles Die schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Mill-Girl) and Winterreise (Winter Journey) respectively, the “Three Mediterranean Herbs” from Giorgos Koumendakis’ Mesogeios erimos (Mediterranean Desert) and the highly famous “Aria on the G string”, as the transcription of the second part of Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major BWV 1068 is commonly known.

On the empty stage of the Stavros Niarchos Hall Theodore Tzovanakis performs the Lonely Miniatures of Spring, while the camera wanders through the empty spaces of the Greek National Opera. “We shall fill this void from scratch. Step by step, note by note, phrase by phrase, with our heart and mind, with music. A lot of music. Blossomed music. An exit to spring, an exit to life, together”, notes Giorgos Koumendakis.

The Greek National Opera opens a new cycle of artistic programming. The first Online Festival titled EXIT: SPRING and curated by Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis spreads its wings into the digital world and invites us to a new viewing and listening experience. From 17th May to 30th June 2020, eleven new music, opera, operetta and music theatre video-performances created during the pandemic, as well as one recorded dance performance, come for free to our homes via www.nationalopera.gr, GNO’s Facebook page and GNO YouTube channel. All Festival video-performances revolve around the themes of the anticipation of spring, the rebirth of nature and the coming of the new. The Festival is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

 Responding to the challenges of the time, the Greek National Opera develops new means of creation and presentation of its work beyond the ordinary. While experiencing a new reality, whose end none of us can predict, we turn the forced absence from our standard artistic activity to a new creativity beyond norms and limitations. The first Online Festival EXIT: SPRING aims at offering friends of the GNO in Greece and across the world, a “digital” exit to this year’s lost spring, through music, dance and lyric art video-performances.

The Greek National Opera would like to thank all the artists and artistic bodies, who granted their rights for free, in order to make sure that the broadcast of these video-performances of the festival will be free to the public, in this difficult time.