An Epirote oratorio based on Aristotle Valaoritis’s poem “Kyra Frosyni”
Heroine, rebel, or sinner and adulteress? Inspired by the love affair between Kyra Frosyni and Muhtar, the son of Ali Pasha, and by her tragic drowning in the Lake of Ioannina together with sixteen other women on Ali Pasha’s orders, this work explores a woman’s right to her own body, to love, and to freedom. It recounts a collective femicide carried out by one of the most powerful men of his time because—according to Valaoritis—she rejected his advances. But who is truly powerful in the end? The one who kills, or the woman who chooses her own fate alongside the person she loves, even when that choice leads to death? Like an ancient tragedy, the audience witnesses the protagonists singing and being shaken by their passions. Inspired by the musical traditions of Epirus and the wider Pindus region, FROSYNI takes the form of an oratorio. The leading characters perform highly expressive solo vocal lines rich in ornamentation, while the chorus narrates the story through elements of Epirot polyphony. The orchestra, led by Nikos Filippidis, virtuously performs newly composed works infused with the distinctive musical idioms of Epirus.
This summer, the IONIA Orchestra and Choir of Nea Ionia, Volos presents a dynamic and diverse Music Theatre performance titled RΟ. on the edge of Time. The 13-member orchestra of traditional instruments, the 20-member mixed choir and 11 actors will take audiences on a ritual journey where tradition meets the present day. “Humans are not human if they feel no fear at all; they are human because they fear, because they fall and bend and yet they rise and go on again.” On the occasion of Menander’s verse, “Ὡς χαρίεν ἔστ’ ἄνθρωπος, ὅταν ἄνθρωπος ᾖ” (“How graceful is man when they are really a man”) and drawing inspiration from the Lady of Ro, our own Ro is the Guardian of Love. She stands on the edge of Time, just before the world comes to an end, and guards Love. Her ally is the Chorus, the people who express her fear, her hope, her joy, but also the dialogue with society and its voices. In our time, when war rages everywhere and in every possible form, our performance invites the audience into a ritual of peace, so that we may remember from the very beginning, all together, to guard Love.
“Ek Kormou” is a contemporary music-theatre composition for four female voices, piano, and trombone, inspired by figures from ancient Greek tragedy. Phaedra, Iphigenia, Antigone, and Cassandra appear not as mythological heroines, but as human consciousnesses carrying memory, desire, sacrifice, action, and truth. Through polyphonic textures, solo passages, and choral interaction, ancient language meets contemporary musical expression, transforming the stage into a space of inner dialogue and collective experience. Music functions as an integral dramaturgical element, where sound and silence shape the dramatic action equally with the spoken word. The work explores the female voice as a place of resistance, responsibility, and existential confrontation. Rather than retelling myths, the performance focuses on the emotional and ethical condition of the human being when faced with difficult choices. “Ek Kormou” ultimately reflects on coexistence, truth, and the enduring human need to speak, remember, and be heard.
The Kore opens the chest. As she unfolds the rugs, one by one, she recalls everything her mother told her. Each weft, three stories: the story of the world–with wars, harvests, and fairs –, the story of the community–with songs, teasing, fairy tales, and blankets –, and the silent story of the heart.
With expectations, loneliness, and dreams. This is how the weaving hours used to pass under the lamplight. Women’s hands resembled those of the mythical, ageless Weavers. Yet times have changed. The Kore no longer weaves to warm herself and others; she weaves to remember and create. Wefts become voices. And the loom becomes a musical body. The threads are quivering. Through the final weaving, where memories come together, Erchigos is born – a work made of sound.
We thank the ‘To Pleteno’ of Xanthi for the generous donation of the loom.
What happens when a theatrical Iphigenia engages in conversation with a poetic Iphigenia and an artificial one? A dialogue between Artificial Intelligence, timeless texts, and original music.
In the music theatre performance The Dimension of Iphigenia, the audience will be introduced to three different versions of the female character of Iphigenia. Each actress, through her own monologue, will shed light on a different aspect of the same figure, adding a new dimension to the development of the plot.
More specifically, Evangelia Keramari will portray Euripides’ Iphigenia, set against a backdrop of exile within a dystopian world. Ioanna Efthymiadiou will take us on a journey through Yiannis Ritsos’ Iphigenia. Markela Zerdali will perform as the Artificial Intelligence Iphigenia, rejecting the realm of emotions in favour of logic. Composer Angeliki Zoe will offer her own musical dimension to the show, with original music that highlights the inner worlds of the three performers.
Troy. Smyrna. The face. The mother. The land. The motherland. The Queen. Hecuba. She crosses time. Like a curved arrow.
Ruins. Corpses. A city. Troy. Smyrna. Lost motherlands. Lost lives. Whose walls are ruined. Burnt down. By the fire of war. Thousands of people. Becoming refugees. They saw their port turning into a river of blood. They buried there a piece of their soul. Their heart hasn’t forgotten. The body was tortured, to put down roots elsewhere.
The story of a city. The destruction of the “cradle of civilisation”. Troy is still on fire.
The Music Theatre Company Rafi collaborates with the Oros Ensemble, composer Apostolis Koutsogiannis, poet Marios Hadjiprokopiou and visual artist Petros Touloudis to create a musico-visual cantata that illuminates moments from the life of Koutaliani, as strongmen from Asia Minor used to be called, over different historical periods: from the late 19th century to the postwar era.
The legendary life of these persons also serves as an allegory for the transition from the late-19th-century world to the successive displacements of the early 20th century, the Asia Minor Catastrophe, and the suffocating borders of the modern Greek state.
The work features the legendary Panagis Koutalianos and his descendant Dimitris, Charis Karpozilos and Giannis Keskelidis or Sampson, the giant of the Greek catch known as “Attilio” or “the Asian” (sic).
A musical performance that engages in a dialogue with the digital painting of George Kordis, who digitally creates a series of murals depicting refugee processions titled “Anestii” (Hearthless). Fenia Papadodima converses with the works, following George Seferis’ journey to Cappadocia, testimonies of refugees, and poems.
With her voice she travels across hymnody, singing, improvisation, speech. She leads audiences to an inner approach of the tragedy of the hearthless people of all eras.
From the person to the loss of the person.
Composer Sofia Kamayianni’s new music theatre work invites us to raise our awareness about our connection with nature, and more specifically, trees. It is a one-act children’s chamber opera to a libretto by Giota Vasilakopoulou. Through the tender and moving relationship unfolding between a boy and a tree, the work foregrounds their similarities as entities and reveals the great secrets of the life of trees, above and below the earth’s surface. The enviable system of mutual help and support of trees that has been studied by scientists in the recent years and has led to wondrous discoveries, stands at the opposite end of man’s “uprooting” from their natural environment.
“Because people cannot see the colour of words, the tints of words, the secret ghostly motions of words (…); is that any reason why we should not try to make them hear, to make them see, to make them feel?” – Lafcadio Hearn
Japan and Greece – two cultures conversing in the new music theatre work titled Tsunami that will be presented with a script and directed by Elpida Skoufalou. On 11 March 2011, a catastrophic earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, triggering a gigantic tsunami, which not only had huge cost in human lives but also caused the biggest nuclear accident after Chernobyl. When disaster struck, poet Mayuzumi Madoka organised haiku composition sessions with the survivors. She collected 126 haiku poems that served as inspiration for the “Tsunami” of this musical performance. With speech, original music – drawn upon the encounter of Japanese musical traditions with those of Greece – and dance as a vehicle, this work focuses on climate crisis and its detrimental effects on our lives and souls.