Marina Abramović's Opera Project 7 DEATHS OF MARIA CALLAS Makes UK Premiere

In an exciting UK premiere, this November the English National Opera (ENO) presents celebrated performance artist Marina Abramović making her ENO debut with her production of 7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the London Coliseum. Exploring the life, work and death of one of opera's greatest stars, this staging marks 100 years since the American-born Greek soprano's birth.

 

Callas - whose private life was never quite able to be separated from her performances - has fascinated Abramović for decades, conceiving this operatic project as a homage and exploration of the great prima donna. Abramović first heard Maria Callas when she was fourteen years old in Yugoslavia. Since Callas's voice caught her attention at a young age, Abramović has been drawn to their similarities.

 

Immortalised through her place in popular culture, Callas (sometimes referred to as ‘La Divina' - the divine one) is invoked on stage through a series of her most famous arias from La traviata, Tosca, Madam Butterfly, Carmen, Otello, Lucia di Lammermoor and Norma, with new music by Serbian Composer Marko Nikodijević.

 

Accompanying each of these aria performances are a series of short films starring Abramović and American actor Willem Dafoe. Present on stage throughout the performance, Abramović plays the sleeping Callas, haunted by her greatest roles in a set that recreates the Paris apartment where Callas died.

 

In addition to performing in this ‘truthful and mesmerising declaration of love to Callas' (Bachtrack), Abramović both directed and designed the operatic project. Leading the award-winning ENO Orchestra is Israeli-American Conductor Yoel Gamzou. Gamzou is reuniting with Abramović after previously conducting her opera project at Opéra de Paris, the Greek National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at Naples' Teatro San Carlo. The costumes have been designed by Riccardo Tisci for Burberry.

 

Performing alongside Marina Abramović, the cast is comprised of seven singers performing Callas in her greatest roles and singing their iconic arias in their original language, with English surtitles displayed above the stage.

 

Making her ENO debut, the ‘sensational' (Bachtrack) Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura is performing Violetta's aria, ‘Addio, del passato', from La traviata. Nakamura is a former Jette Parker Young Artist and has made notable appearances internationally, capturing worldwide acclaim for her assured singing and artistic intensity.

 

Soprano Elbenita Kajtazi, a native of Mitrovica, Republic of Kosovo, is performing Tosca's aria ‘Vissi d'arte'. Making her UK operatic debut, Kajtazi is a former and one of the youngest members of the Young Artist Programme at Deutsche Oper Berlin and continues to impress audiences in opera houses internationally. She is now a principal singer of the Hamburg State Opera.

 

‘Tremendous' (The Spectator) British soprano and former Harewood Artist Nadine Benjamin is performing ‘Ave Maria', Desdemona's aria from Otello. Benjamin returns to the ENO after her ‘particularly outstanding' (Evening Standard) performance in Blue in April 2022, and she returns again for her second engagement of the season as Moira in The Handmaid's Tale in February 2024.

 

‘Exquisite' (Limelight Magazine) Korean soprano Karah Son is singing Cio-Cio San's ‘Un bel dì, vedremo' from Madame Butterfly, an aria praised as ‘very finely done' (The Telegraph) when sung in 2016 at Glyndebourne. Making her ENO debut, Son has established herself as an award-winning soprano on both the concert and operatic stages. 

 

The critically acclaimed Russian mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina is singing ‘L'amour est un oiseau rebelle', more commonly known as the ‘Habanera' from Carmen, a role Akhmetshina has previously performed at the Royal Opera House and Bayerische Staatsoper. Although Carmen is a role that Callas never played on stage, this is an aria she frequently performed in concert. Praised with ‘a vibrant stage presence and a great voice' (Daily Mail), Akhmetshina is a former Jette Parker Young Artist and has established herself as an award-winning performer.

 

Making a welcome return to the ENO is British soprano and former Harewood Artist Sarah Tynan who is singing Lucia's aria ‘Il dolce suono' from Lucia di Lammermoor, a role in which she gave ‘a performance to touch the heart' (The Times) at the ENO in 2018. Tynan, who was recently nominated by the Evening Standard as one of the most influential artists in UK music, has established herself as an exciting and versatile performer.

The ‘magnetic' (Classical Source) British soprano and former Harewood Artist Sophie Bevan MBE is performing the aria ‘Casta Diva' from Norma. Bevan, the award-winning performer, returns to the ENO following her performance as Hermione in The Winter's Tale in 2017.

Completing the creative team is Anna Schoetl for the Set Design, Georgine Balk is the Revival Director, music by Marko Nikodijević, libretto by Petter Skavlan and Marina Abramović, Nabil Elderkin is the Film Director, Visual Intermezzos by Marco Brambilla, Sound Design by Luka Kozlovacki, Light Design is by Urs Schoenebaum, Dramaturgy by Benedikt Stampfli, Tobias Lenfers is the Revival Stage Manager, and International Production Management is by Rafi Gokay Wol and Yasemin Kandemiroglu for HarrisonParrott.

The production premiered in September 2020 at Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper and has since toured to co-production partners: the Greek National Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra national de Paris, and the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli. Revivals in the 2022/23 season include performances at the Royal Theatre Carré in Amsterdam and Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

7 Deaths of Maria Callas opens on Friday 3 November for 5 performances: Nov 3, 9, 11 at 19.30. Nov 5, 11 at 15.00.

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