One of the most famous works of American composer Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring for a chamber orchestra of thirteen instruments, was commissioned by the famous choreographer Martha Graham and the Coolidge Foundation. It first premiered in Washington on 30 October 1944 starring Graham herself, in a performance with a set by famous Japanese-American sculptor and architect Isamu Noguchi. In 1945 the composer created from the ballet a condensed Suite for a large symphony orchestra and a second one for the initial ensemble of thirteen instruments, which have ever since been independently performed in concert programmes. For this work Copland received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1945 and the New York Music Critics’ Circle Award.

The thirteen musicians of the GNO Orchestra perform the work in the big Orchestra Rehearsal Hall at the SNFCC, keeping a two-meter distance from each other, while the heart-breaking solo of prominent Greek dance figure Elena Topalidou in an Athenian forest is a small tribute to Martha Graham, thanks to whom Copland’s leading work was created. Seventy-six years after its premiere in New York, Appalachian Spring still keeps signalling music’s great simplicity and immediacy, and contemporary’s dance timeless power.

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.