The Passage to Spring is a music performance set up by four musicians of the Greek National Opera Orchestra: flutist Zach Tarpagos, clarinettist Panagiotis Sioras, hornist Angelos Sioras and percussionist Panagiotis Ziavras. The rebirth encompassed in the rite of spring, the journey from the innerness of winter to the joy of creation, the recreation and versatility of spring, are the foundations of the performance’s dramaturgy. As the passage from the Divine Passion to Resurrection symbolizes the passage from winter to spring, the passage from the exceptional circumstances of confinement leads to the rebirth of the contact of musicians with each other and with the audience. The performance is based on J. S. Bach’s cantata BW7 177 “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” (I Call to You, Lord Jesus Christ) and chorale BWV 299 “Dir, dir, Jehova, will ich singen” (To You Jehovah, I Will Sing), “Spring” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons transcribed by Jean Jacques Rousseau, Friedrich Wildgans Three Improvisations opus 19a, Nathan Daughtrey’s Trio Burn 3 and Christopher Lowry’s composition Livewire!.

The passage from the spaces where the complex mechanical installations of the GNO are kept to the top of the stage tower and the costume construction workshops, intermingles with the dramaturgy of these music masterpieces.

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.