As 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of her birth Maria Callasthe National Opera is planning a series of events to honor the leading tweeter of the 20th century, artistically curated by Giorgos Koumentakis. From April to December 2023, ELLS, as part of the tribute to Callas, will present “Medea” by Kerubini, an art installation in the foyer, an Opera Gala at the Herodeion, an exhibition at the National Library of Greece, a documentary about the unknown early years of the Greek diva, a video-recital dedicated to her “first repertoire”, while she will also hold an educational workshop together with the DmLab of the Technical University of Crete.

The Artistic Director of the National Opera, George Koumentakisnotes: “Maria Callas is an artist who defined the history of the National Opera (..). With the program that we will present for the 100th anniversary of Maria Callas, we aspire on the one hand to shed light on her relationship with our Organization and on the other hand to make the legend of Callas known to the younger generations, as a bright example of talent, hard work, dedication, perfectionism , shine».

Maria Callas signed her first contract with the Lyric Stage in 1940, a few months after it was founded in 1939 by the enlightened Kostis Bastias, as part of the National (then Royal) Theater of Greece.

The Ministry of Culture and Sports has included the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Maria Callas in the UNESCO list of commemorating anniversaries for 2023.

The tribute at a glance

The central event of the ELLS for the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Maria Callas is “Medea” by Luigi Cherubini, which will be presented on April 25, 27, 30 and May 2, 4, 9, 2023 in the Stavros Niarchos Hall, in musical direction by Philippe Oguen and direction and sets by David McVicar. It is a major international co-production of ELLS with three great American operas – the Metropolitan Opera of New York, the Opera of Canada and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

As part of the events of the National Opera’s tribute to Maria Callas valuable material from the Historical Archive of the National Opera will be presented for the first time. Recently, the collector Dimitris Pyromallis donated his rich collection of Maria Kallas, which consists of thousands of items and includes, among others, recordings, rare publications, documents, photographs, personal items, etc.

Also, ELLS recently acquired the photographic archive of Cleisthenis, which includes rare photographic material from the performances of Callas in Greece, as well as the archive of chief musician Leonidas Zora, who had conducted Callas in her first performances at Lyriki, but also of the journalist and Director of the Athens Festival in the 1950s, Achilleas Mamakis, who invited Kallas to give the 1957 recital at the Herodeion. In addition, for the needs of the tribute, MIET-ELIA has granted the ELLS archival material from the Paxinos – Minoti archive.

Also, as part of the celebrations, ELS presents “UNBOXING CALLAS”. It is a visual program that draws inspiration from unboxing, as it became popular through digital communities, that is, a ritualistic process of recording the first contact with an object. On the occasion of the new production of “Medea”, in the first part of the program Vassilis Zidianakis invites the visual artist Panos Profitis to create a multiform visual experiment entitled “From Callas to Medea”, an installation in three acts, which occupies for the first time takes the premises of the ELLS foyer at the SNFCC. In the second part of the program, the exhibition “UNBOXING CALLAS: An archival exploration in the collection of Dimitris Pyromalli and the archive of the Hellenic Republic”, is inspired by personal stories, memories and archival objects of Maria Callas, creating a collective artistic account of her career.

Next September, ELLS presents the Anniversary Gala of 2023 entitled “The Callas in Herodion”. Four internationally recognized opera actresses will honor Maria Callas by performing arias from operas by Kalomiris, Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi, Donizetti, Tomas, who she herself performed at the Roman conservatory with her rare vocal range and extraordinary virtuosity, leaving an unsurpassed mark .

On December 2, 2023, the day that marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Maria Callas, the documentary by Vassilis Loura (a co-production of ELLS with the production company ESCAPE) will premiere at the Stavros Niarchos Hall, which focuses on the years in which she received her artistic education and performed her first roles at the Lyric Stage (1937-1945), as well as in her three later appearances at Herodeo (1957) and Epidaurus (1960 and 1961).

In addition, within the framework of the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Hellenic Public Service and the Technical University of Crete, an innovative educational workshop entitled “Visualising the voice of Maria Callas” is being organized which will aim at the experimental visualization of the sound of Maria Callas. Finally, from December 2023, ELLS will present a video-recital with the repertoire that Kallas performed from 1937 to 1945 in Athens, either in the context of her conservatory exams or in performances, auditions, celebrations and recitals, which will be shown for free on GNO TV.

PPC is the sponsor of the ELS program for Maria Kallas. The program is implemented with the support of the donation of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to strengthen the artistic extroversion of the National Opera.