Greek National Opera House: a New home for the National Opera by Niarchos Foundation
This is a jewel recently fulfilled and donated to the Greek State by Stavros Niarchos Foundation. It houses the Greek National Opera and the National Library of Greece. It is located in Faliro, near the sea. Its view is amazing, so is the main hall of the Opera, where I enjoyed Manon opera.
Mrs Christina Poulitsi, the star soprano of the Greek National Opera is truly magnificent! Her voice is crystal clear! I truly enjoyed her passion and presence on the stage. Christina Poulitsi studied in the Berlin University of Arts and has appeared in many operas around the world, such as Barcelona, Shanghai, Dresden, Bologna, Berlin, Rhein, Seattle, London, Paris, Hamburg, New York and so on (http://christinapoulitsi.com/).
Manon is a play about a girl who is trying to find her path in life via superficial pleasures.
The director, Mr Thomas Moschopoulos, decided to apply modern aspect to the play in order to approach a variety of audiences. I liked this aspect although the play refers to e.g. carriages and the actors are using smart phones (!).
The orchestra under the directions of conductor Mr Loukas Karutinos, was also very good.
Overall an amazing experience, worth discovering if you visit Athens – whichever play you decide to watch!
Until next time, enjoy!
Magnificent buildings and cultural opportunities, like you have shown here, highlight for me the dichotomy of opportunity between city and country living.
In ancient times it seems that high cultural activities also took place in much less metropolitan settings. I wonder if there is a way to bring a higher cultural life back to the countryside/villages. If so, perhaps some of the more negative aspects of high population density might be mitigated. And the already significant rewards of country life could be enriched.
It seems that in antiquity people were smarter, whereas now they are being imprisoned in gold cages and forget the true joys of life, like nature..
It is an amazing building and I think acoustics are good too. I often go to a opera house in Romania that is over 150 years old, the showroom is gorgeous (the same architects who built the Vienna opera) but it is small. I think it's impressive inside Greek National Opera.
I was surely impressed by this new building; I tryly believe that any theatre in the world is a great accomplishment for people's lives! Thanks for reading!
With pleasure! I'm glad to discover that you like the world of the show (opera, theater).