Greek National Opera to Stage FAUST

The Greek National Opera (GNO) will present a revival of its 2012 production of Charles Gounod's Faust with eight performances April 6 through 17. The production, which premiered in 2012 at Megaron-The Athens Concert Hall, will be presented at the Stavros Niarchos Hall for the first time, conducted by Pierre Dumoussaud and directed by Renato Zanella.

Internationally acclaimed Italian choreographer, Mr. Zanella, is a former GNO Ballet Director who has also served as the Artistic Director of the Vienna State Opera Ballet. In this production he shifts the action to an old and empty lecture hall. There, against a backdrop of blackboards densely inscribed with wisdom, Faust is tormented by fundamental questions concerning life and death, love and success. Inside his addled mind, Faust meets with Méphistophélès, who uses Marguerite to lead him into temptation, convincing him to sign a deal with the devil. Mr. Zanella notes:

"My directorial approach moves away from both the supernatural and the religious facets of the work to place humankind-in all its weakness-at the heart of the action. Is Faust really made young again, or is Méphistophélès simply showing him what he wants to see? Do they really leave that space to visit other places and go on the most amazing adventures, or do they in fact never leave the lecture hall? Might this room actually be the inside of Faust's head, packed so full of information that he cannot distinguish what is real from what is imaginary?"

Faust will be the second GNO production conducted by Mr. Dumoussaud who led performances of Lucia di Lammermoor in 2019. The winner of the inaugural International Opera Conductors Competition organized by Opéra Royal de Wallonie (Belgium), he has worked with stage directors such as Olivier Py, and has performed in renowned theatres and festivals such as Aix-en-Provence Festival, Opéra national de Paris, and Drottningholm Palace Theatre. Earlier this month he was named the inaugural recipient of the new "Révélation, Chef d'orchestre" category at the 29th annual Les Victoires de la Musique Classique awards in France.

Charles Gounod's Faust is an example of the French grand opéra genre, and the first work of its kind to enjoy wide international success, becoming the most popular opera in the world from its 1859 debut in Paris roughly through to the Second World War. Although taking its storyline from Goethe's play, in which an elderly scholar, Faust, sells his soul to Méphistophélès in exchange for youth and love, the opera centers not so much on Faust as it does on Marguerite, who is transformed by love and ends up paying a terrible price for the choices she makes.

The production stars acclaimed Greek and international soloists Ivan Magrì, Yannis Christopoulos, Irina Lungu, Vassiliki Karayanni, Yanni Yannissis, Tassos Apostolou, Petros Magoulas, and Dionysios Sourbis, among others.

As part of the Greek National Opera's accessibility action cycle "All Together at the Opera," the performances of Faust on Sunday, April 10 and Sunday, April 17 will be fully accessible. Presented in collaboration with the cultural organisation liminal, the performances have the goal of offering an unhindered audiovisual experience of the show for all. For these two selected performances, there will be seats for deaf/hard of hearing users of the Greek Sign Language, seats for deaf/hard of hearing users of SDH subtitles, and seats for visually impaired people who will be able to use the Audio Description Service (with or without a guide dog). Audience members who want to use the accessibility services are kindly requested to purchase their tickets at the GNO Box Office, by phone at 2130885700 or via email at boxoffice@nationalopera.gr. For tickets, click here.

The performances of Faust continue the GNO's 2021-22 season in Stavros Niarchos Hall that opened with concert productions of Pavlos Carrer's operas Frossini and Despo in October and a recital by Sonja Yoncheva in November. It continued with an internationally acclaimed revival of Giorgos Koumendakis' The Murderess in December and Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier in January. In February and March, the GNO proudly presented performances of Guiseppe Verdi's Otello directed, designed, and with lighting by Robert Wilson in a significant co-production between the GNO and the Festspiel Baden-Baden. Due to overwhelming demand, the GNO added three performances of Otello on March 5, 11, and 19.

The 2021-22 season continues in May with the world premiere of a short film, Bleat, by internationally renowned Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos starring Emma Stone and Damien Bonnard and presented in Stavros Niarchos Hall with live music as part of the "Artist on the Composer" series and concludes in July with the world premiere of Inland by Greek composer Angelos Triantafyllou. The GNO will also premiere a new production of Verdi's Rigoletto directed by Katerina Evangelatos and a revival of Puccini's Tosca directed by Hugo de Ana over the summer in the Roman outdoor amphitheatre, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, presented as part of the internationally renowned Athens Epidaurus Festival. The 2021-22 season programme is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera's artistic outreach.