Athens & Epidaurus 2017 Festival
Athens & Epidaurus 2017 Festival is in it final stretch!
The summer will be filled again with theatre, music, dance & visual art. On Tuesday, April 4, at 12 noon, the artistic director Vangelis Theodoropoulos will present this year’s program.
Old & new friend of Athens & Epidaurus Festival can watch the announcement of this year’s program live broadcast via live steaming.
What is the Athens Festival?
A great celebration that has lasted 56 summers, and that has hosted some of the leading lights of theatre, music and dance. From Mitropoulos and Callas to Rostropovich, Pavarotti, Leonidas Kavakos and Dimitris Sgouros. From Theodorakis and Hadjidakis to Savvopoulos, Protopsalti, Dalaras and Marinella. From Rondiris and Koun to Streller, Peter Hall, Noh theatre, Bunraku puppet theatre, and the Peking Opera. From Balanchine to Pina Bausch, and from Nureyev and Fonteyn to Martha Graham and Alicia Alonso.
Above all, however, it is a venture with an eventful past often clouded by events in Greece’s recent history. A venture that, over the last two years, has taken on a youthful vitality, and openness. But how did we come to this point?
In 1955, when George Rallis was Minister of the Presidency in the government of Alexander Papagos, the decision was taken to organise a high arts festival in Athens. To this end, the renowned theatre director Dinos Giannopoulos was invited over from America, and was in effect given the complete freedom to found and organise the Athens Festival as he saw fit.
The Festival programme included theatre and music performances, all of which were held at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. The highlight of the inauguratory year was the appearance in Athens of the great New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Dimitris Mitropoulos
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| Dimitris Mitropoulos rehearsing with the New York Philharmonic at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus (1955) |
The Dilemma: Backwater or Eastern Metropolis?
The performance by this fine orchestra made comparisons with Greek ensembles – and in particular the Athens State Orchestra – unavoidable. The music critic Minos Dounias, whose opinion held great sway, wrote in the national daily newspaper I Kathimerini (10/11/1955): "Following the visit of Mitropoulos and his Philharmonic Orchestra, the output […] of our orchestra is clearly dull and graceless. […] We must not be the last remaining musical backwater in Europe forever."
