The arte povera movement was reminiscent of the humble origin of art materials and highlighted concepts such as the reuse of materials and their repurposing out of their initial context. Rather playing with the reference to this great movement (and much less being serious about the possibility of applying it to a par excellence “rich” art such as opera) we try to invent ways to reconnect with the Greek National Opera’s audience.

Opera povera is a video-performance playing with a phantasy that is ever-present in the opera world: the phantasy of an ideal and unaltered classical form of performance. The art of opera is, afterall, a wonderful anachronism and it is this dimension that we highlight by returning not only to costumes and sets of earlier GNO performances, but also to the Greek-translated texts of the organization’s early decades of life. Memory pieces of bygone performances are once more recomposed, to be once again deconstructed and return to the inexistence of storage.

From Il barbiere di Siviglia to Die Zauberflöte, and from Lucia di Lammermoor to Rigoletto, Opera povera presents the virus-free art of opera, with modest means, large distances and old fashioned stage approaches.

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.