Online festivals

LONELY MINIATURES OF SPRING

1st Online festival ''Exit: Spring''

25'

From 14/03/2021 to 31/03/2024

Description

Renowned pianist Theodore Tzovanakis put together a programme of eight sensitive miniatures for piano. It includes one of the 24 pieces of the Children’s Album composed by Tchaikovsky according to the model of similar works of Schumann, two Schubert’s songs transcribed by Liszt from the cycles Die schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Mill-Girl) and Winterreise (Winter Journey) respectively, the “Three Mediterranean Herbs” from Giorgos Koumendakis’ Mesogeios erimos (Mediterranean Desert) and the highly famous “Aria on the G string”, as the transcription of the second part of Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major BWV 1068 is commonly known.

On the empty stage of the Stavros Niarchos Hall Theodore Tzovanakis performs the Lonely Miniatures of Spring, while the camera wanders through the empty spaces of the Greek National Opera. “We shall fill this void from scratch. Step by step, note by note, phrase by phrase, with our heart and mind, with music. A lot of music. Blossomed music. An exit to spring, an exit to life, together”, notes Giorgos Koumendakis.

The 1st Online festival titled "Exit: Spring", curated by GNO Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis, was presented from 17 May to 30 June 2020 and included eleven new music, opera, operetta and music theatre video-performances created during the pandemic, as well as one recorded dance performance. All festival video-performances revolved around the themes of the anticipation of spring, the rebirth of nature and the coming of the new. The festival was made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.