Athens Epidaurus Festival
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Are you doing your mobility near Athens or Epidaurus? The Athens Festival could be a great opportunity to immerse yourself in Greek culture and improve your Greek language understanding. Make sure you book your tickets in advance, as they go fast.
The Athens & Epidaurus Festival is the leading public cultural organization in the country. In its 65 years of operation, it has hosted some of the biggest names in music, dance, and theatre from the domestic and international scene. In music, from Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra to Kallas, Rostropovich, Pavarotti, Kavakos, and Sgouros, from Theodorakis and Hadjidakis to Savvopoulos, Faradouri, and Dallara. In dance, from Balanchine, Fontaine, and Nureyev, the Bolshoi and the Royal Ballet to Graham, Bezar, Pina Baus, Maggie Maren, Anne de Keersmacker, Dimitris Papaioannou. And in the theatre, from Rodiris and Kuhn to Strehler, Hall, Mnuskin, Castellucci, and Ostermeier, from the No Theater to the Peking Opera and the Volksbüne, from the South African Brett Bailey to Lefteris Vogiatzis.
The establishment of a "festival of the
high arts" in Athens in the 20th century goes back to 1955, when
the minister in charge at the time, George Rallis, entrusted the
director Dino Yiannopoulos with the organization, the highlight of
which was the presence of Dimitris Mitropoulos, with the Philharmonic
Orchestra of New York. With the exclusive seat of the Herodes of
Atticus Conservatory initially, the Athens Festival is defined by its
constitution as a privileged place to host influential international
artists. At the same time, it develops as an ideal field for dialogue
between domestic and foreign creation.
The major axes of
the festival programming were initially the large orchestras and the
attempt to revive and modernize the theatrical repertoire of
classical antiquity. At the same time, from the second year, dance
was already added. In music, thanks to Mitropoulos's catalytic
presence, large bands and important soloists are transferred. At the
same time, an effort is also made to highlight influential Greek
creators (such as Skalkotas, some of whose dances Mitropoulos
presented in his first Greek appearance). In the theatre, the also
catalytic presence of Dimitris Rodiris consolidates a stereotypical
performance of the ancient text in correspondence with the
neoclassical model.
About twenty years earlier, Rontiris, with the National Theater, had also inaugurated the theatre of Epidaurus. The first play presented after that antiquity, in 1938, was Sophocles' Electra, translated by I. Gryparis, with Katina Paxinou in the title role. The play was performed in the ancient orchestra of the "most beautiful theater in the world" without scenery and – due to the lack of electricity – without lighting, with the natural light of the afternoon. The Touring Club organised this historical performance to establish an annual "Epidavros season", but the Second World War and the Civil War suspended the ambitious plans. Thus, the Epidaurias were supposed to start in 1954, with Euripides' Hippolytus, again directed by D. Rodiris, and its official opening to coincide with the start of the Athens Festival in 1955, with Alexis Minotis directing Hekavi. The two institutions' subsequent parallel course – until the organizational merger – and their conversation with the historical and social development is captured with particular clarity in the field of ancient drama.
Epidaurus emerges as a field of maximum artistic competition, even if, for twenty years, the National Theater is exclusively presented there. In Rontiri's productions, the members of the dance, as expressions of the collective consciousness, perform uniform movements and sing the choruses as a group - to the criticisms he receives for "German mentality", Rontiris replies that he is inspired by Byzantine music and obituaries. According to him, Alexis Minotis breaks the "submission to the German Sprechchor" and the uniformity of the movement. Despite any differences between the directors, a single archaic style is formed; renowned actors, such as Minotis, Paxinou, Kotsopoulos, and young tragedians, such as Hatziargyri and Synodinou, highlight the classicizing aesthetic line of the National Theatre. At the same time, the visual part is signed by the permanent "dioskouri" of the state stage, the set designer Kleoboulos Klonis with his architectural volumes, and the costume designer Antonis Fokas with the famous pleats of his tunics, introduced to the secrets of weaving by Eva Sikelianou.
Since April 2016, the artistic direction of Vangelis Theodoropoulos has added to the above the co-productions with international artistic theatre and dance groups, as well as with regional organizations on a pan-Hellenic level, the coordinated effort to promote Greek groups abroad, and -mainly- the widening the audience with an important opening in the city that stretches from Athens to Piraeus, in collaboration with the Municipal Theater of Piraeus, in the context of which public spaces are used (squares, arcades, neighbourhoods, places of historical memory, museums, etc.), as well as restored ancient theatres, while a parallel educational program is organized.
In addition, the active involvement of the Festival in the domestic production of artistic work is highlighted as a separate goal of great importance so that the Greek element, far from its stereotypical folkloric dimension, comes to the surface again. This perspective also included the establishment of the Lyceum of Epidaurus, an international summer school dedicated to the study of ancient drama, addressed to young actors and students of drama schools worldwide.
Since September 2019, the artistic director of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival has been taken over by the director Katerina Evagelatou.
This year's Athens Festival begins on June 1st and it will last until the end of September, and the schedule can be seen here.
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