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Opera Chaotique return to Half Note Jazz Club

After their successful appearances inHalf Note, theOpera Chaoticreturn to present the most chaotic, comic opera themMondays 6, 13, 20 & 27 February on 21:30 at night.
In the middle of the 19th century in a dark theater in the center of Paris, the Tenorman played the Phantom of the Opera and the Voodoo Drummer played percussion in the orchestra. The show went down immediately. So they created Opera Chaotique and now present a unique show that combines different types of music such asOpera, Jazz, Cabaret, Musicaland more, all through a comedic story, in a combination of improvisation and instant audience interaction that already won the favor of the Berlin press and beyond.
Don Juan and Carmen in three acts, the Phantom of the Opera, Figaro and Charles Bukowski with Faust, they get involved in adventures and star in a surreal comic-tragic story.
From the Opera of the 18th and 19th to the genesis of Jazz in New Orleans in its beginnings 1900, to the Berlin Cabarets of the 1920s and 1930s.
Tenorman : Vocals / Piano & Mystery
Voodoo Drummer : Drums & Tricks
Source : culturenow.gr
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The Symphonic Music of Mikis Theodorakis at the Athens Concert Hall

TheAthens Concert Hallpresents one concertwith thesymphonic musicofMiki Theodorakisher Friday 10 February 2012.
THEMikis Theodorakis has devoted a large part of his creative activity to symphonic music. The work of the composerTheodorakisis an important point of reference for its planning Music Hall: this concert is a part of his full presentation, which is planned for the next artistic periods.
Mikis Theodorakis:
– Adagio
– Piano Concerto no. 2
 
Dmitri Shostakovich:
– Agreement no. 6, work 54
Soloist: Kyprianos Katsarispiano
State Orchestra of Athens
Music direction: Loukas Karytinos

Co-production:
Organization of the Athens Concert Hall & State Orchestra of Athens

Source : culturenow.gr

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Be there – Corfu Animation Festival 2012

 TheBe there! Corfu Animation Festival, which returns strongly for thesecond yearnext yearMarch and specifically on its 29th day, it announces with particular enthusiasm and honor that the impressive turnout of artistic films in its competition program resulted in the doubling of last year's already large number of entries in it.
With 49 films in the short film competition section, 34 films in the respective student department and 14 selected films for the out of competition, official part of the "Panorama" festival, which from this year is inaugurated by the international animation festival of Corfu, expectations for another successful event are greatly enhanced.
With 32 markers on the world map, as many countries as will participate in this year's Be there! the group of international friends of the Festival grows and is enriched with Europe giving the scepter of the primacy to the wonderfully elegant France and our known from last year and traditionally strong country of animation, Poland, but also with the rather intense presence of Latin America, of Asia and the United States of America.
The sheer number of films and their cultural richness 32 of participating countries promise fullness of aesthetics and abundance of emotions for the whole range of cinema lovers and especially their friendsanimation.
This year's entries include: 2 movies, already nominated for an Oscar for animation short film. The first is entitled “Sunday/Dimanche” and is a creation of Patrick Doyon from Canada, while the second with the title "A morning stroll" belongs to Grand Orchard from Great Britain.
Among the selected films is the pioneering director of independent animation, Bill Plympton known for "Summer Bummer", as well as the internationally acclaimed Quay Brothers , creators of "Maska" and the acclaimed Greek director Nasos Vakalis creator of "Human nature".
The several Greek entries are also important and interesting this year, among which ambitious ventures of promising students – budding animators from the Audio and Visual Arts Department of our own Ionian University, but also other talented students – artists from other University departments.
The subject matter of this year's films ranges from intense non-conformism(“Swallowing the devil”) and family relationships (“Lumberjack”, “Sunday”) to politically controversial situations (“October 1961”, “Zombierama”) and the joy of creation and life itself ("of light", “A shadow of blue”).
The results for the feature film competition section will be announced in February.
Source : culturenow.gr
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The triumph of Clelia Gluck in the first world revival at the Athens Concert Hall

THEexciting operain his three actsChristoph Willibald von Gluck in first world revival 250 years after its premiere it will be presented inAthens Concert HallherTuesday 14 and on Wednesday 15 February 2012 at 20.00 at night.
An international co-production starting fromOpera Househer journey on European stages, and inCovent Garden (Linbury Studio).
The operaThe Triumph of Clelia, it is bold and demanding for its time, written for the opening of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, it was abandoned and forgotten after a few performances, the 1763. Two hundred and fifty years later it is revived with an impressive production at the Concert Hall as part of the Metatropies Series.
A challenging 21st century show meets the great music of the 18th century, with two dynamic signatures, that promise a spectacle of freshness and inspiration: by Nigel Lowry in the direction and chief musician Giorgos Petros in the direction of Camerata, Orchestra of Friends of Music, with period instruments.
The artistic direction of the production is Giuseppe Sigismonti de Risio. The scenery is by Nigel Lowry, the costumes and the realization of the scenography by Paris Mexi, the lighting by Giorgos Tellos and the musical preparation by Mata Katsoulis and Markellos Chrysikopoulos.
Gluck's thrilling opera in three acts, to a libretto by Pietro Metastazio, is a co-production of "Et in Arcadia ego" and the Athens Concert Hall and is presented in Athens with the support of the European Union, within the Culture program and in collaboration with "Tuttiall' Opera - TAO" and The City of London Sinfonia. She will continue her journey at Linbury Studio in Covent Garden, in June 2012 and on other European stages with an excellent cast of Greek and foreign singers specializing in 18th century music. The work is presented through a new critical edition from the Bologna manuscript, which was made specifically for the needs of this production.
The title role is performed by the French soprano Hélène Lecour (Hélène LeCorre), the mezzo-soprano Mary Ellen Nezi as Horatio, the Turkish soprano Burtsou Ouyar in Larissa(Burcu Uyar), the mezzo-soprano Irene Karagianni as Tarquinio, Porsinna by tenor Vassilis Kavaias and Mannio by Artemis Bogri (mezzo).
THETriumph of Clelia, a war adventure inspired by the legendary pages of Roman history, it has everything: the mythical art of castrati, the boundless virtuosity of bel canto, the baroque drama, the novelties of the galante style. Gluck, for the glamorous opening of the Teatro Comunale, he collaborates with Pietro Metastazio, one of the most important librettists/poets of all time, he writes demanding music, music for virtuoso soloists and pushes its protagonists to the limits of their vocal and dramatic endurance.
The Camerata-Orchestra of the Friends of Music made the first world recording of the work in the summer of 2011, under the musical direction of Giuseppe Sigismondi de Risio for the German company MDG. The album will be released internationally in March 2012 while it will be available on the days of the Megaros performances.
Fascinating and poetic Nigel Lowry, challenging director, with extensive experience in modern and daring productions in the greatest theaters of Europe, proposes a particularly emotional and impressive reading of the work and with an aesthetic that creates the analog standards of our time to understand it: intrigue, diplomacy, corruption through ideology, fanaticism without ethics.
Ideal meeting of Lauri with ECHO KLASSIC awardee Giorgos Petrou, a highly sensitive musician specializing in the repertoire of this era, with the participation of the now internationally renowned Camerata-Orchestra of the Friends of Music.
The occasion: The Teatro Comunale of Bologna wanted an impressive premiere. His impresario sought out Gluck who had already written 30 operas, he was famous on the stages of Europe and had begun to transform opera by adding more and more dramatic elements. Gluck, despite not having close ties to Bologna, accepted, but he preferred to use other librettos by Metastasius, suggested Olympiad, but the theater insisted on Clelia's Triumph. It had spectacular scenes that would show the technical excellence of the theater and an original text that would declare that the new stage was innovating.
The plot: The Roman noblewoman Clelia is captured by the Etruscan king Porcinna, who besieges Rome. Tarquinius, Roman officer, he fights by Porsinna's side, in the hope that he will win the throne of Rome and the love of Clelia. By deceit and machinations, deceives the Roman soldier Horatio, beloved of Clelia and provokes the fatal confrontation: Etruscans and Romans clash on the Tiber bridge. Clelia with her courage and high principles will save her city and Gluck will sign a hymn to female heroism and the triumph of love.
The show: 14 May 1763. The opera was a success, but it was not a triumph. The more anxious audience responded to some tracks, appreciate the new musical idiom, the rich and sophisticated orchestration, but conservative audiences wanted more conventional spectacles. The costumes were by Antonio Galli da Bibiena, of the architect who had also designed the theater and had become the envy of the other architects of the city, which had been organized to discredit the opera. Clelia was performed several times during that period with the theater always full. Gluck supervised the rehearsals of the first three performances, as stipulated in the contract and left town.
The sequel: Clelia was abandoned after the Bologna performances. Her directing requirements, her vocal difficulties, the fact that it was considered a work written for an occasion, they condemned her to obscurity. The 1904 a manuscript copy of her score was discovered in an Austrian monastery, but no one paid attention and it ended up in the archives of the Brussels Conservatory. From there he retrieved it 1963 Gianpietro Tidori and wanted to publish it for the 200 years of the Communal Theatre. He had an accident. The manuscript was finally published on 2008 from the publishing house Baerenreiter, in all of Gluck's.
The composition: THEGluck(1714-1787) set a drama of Metastasios to music (1698-1782) and made an opera that is at its core the voice, voice of masters, who sing a variety of impressive arias. Clelia's character is complex and multidimensional, sometimes heroic, sometimes scared, sometimes moody and sometimes silent, enables him to compose a nuanced musical dialogue and as in almost all of them 35 his operas, so to her, speaks to the public about responsibility, about the personal and moral transformations of man through the great historical events. He himself lived in an era of political and social instability, the American and French Revolutions, the napoleonic wars affected his writing and changed opera dramatically.
In Italian with Greek subtitles
 
 Source : culturenow.gr
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BOOK : Frida Kahlo. The life of an indomitable woman: Linde Zalber

The biography of the great and famous painter Frida Kahlo written by Linde Zalber titled Frida Kahlo – The life of an indomitable woman, published by Melani publications.
"I'm not sick. I'm broken. But I'm happy as long as I can paint"
"Like a ribbon wrapped around a bomb". This is how Andre Breton described Frida Kahlo's art. The characterization, however, could refer to the fancy painter herself, her colorful Mexican dresses over a mutilated body, full of pain, but also wild lust for life. Others called her the "Saint of female art". Others know mainly about her stormy love life, her passion for the love of her life, the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, whom she married twice, but also her many lovers, men and women, among whom was Leon Trotsky, then exiled in Mexico. But mainly, Frida Kahlo is one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, the first maybe, who dared to break the male rules that defined art until then and one of the few women of her time who managed to live with such freedom and intensity overcoming pain and illness and completely revealing herself through her work.
Neither does Derain, neither do you, me neither, none of us can make a head like Frida's.
Pablo Picasso
Her art is certainly not the perfect method of discovering oneself and, regardless of external appearance to make him more beautiful. It is something much more. An approach to ourselves, in what can be done, to "not yet" – nothing is considered final, everything adds up – a search of the form which, when found, responds to Yeats's aesthetic: "everything is transformed, they change completely. A hideous beauty ensues.”
Carlos Fuentes, Illustrated calendar, 1995
THE AUTHOR
Linde Zalber PhD in Psychology and psychotherapist was born in 1944 in Tydz, Pomerania and works at the University of Cologne. Her specialty is the relationship between an artist's life and work. From the 1983 he paints. Author of monographs: Anais Nin (1992) and Marlene Dietrich (2001) and the biography One Thousand and One Women, the story of Anais Nin. Lou Andreas Salome's book, the biography of a femme fatale, (2005)  published by Melani publications.
Source : culturenow.gr
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Alkistis Protopsalti and Evanthia Reboutsika at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall

Alkistis Protopsalti and Evanthia Reboutsika travel their music and songs in Thessaloniki, at the Concert Hall, at 10 and 11 February.
They will present songs flooded with the light of Greece, with sounds that smell of the East but also wink at the West, a program that stirs with its passion and power filling our hearts with tenderness and sensitivity.
“Spice, cinnamon and celebration",  the title of the show, inspired by a song by the Citizen Kitchen to "exorcise" evil, still in a festive mood and many emotions!
Alkistis Protopsalti reports characteristics: "Evanthia's music transports you to something very familiar, in smells and perfumes, to something very familiar, like Sunday afternoon at mom's house where everything is musky. The way she plays her lovely violin encapsulates melancholy and joy in equal measure, it hits you right in the heart".
Evanthia Reboutsika adds: "Where I was looking to find the nightingale of the East outside of Greece, I found it in front of me chirping. I was moved by the colors and aromas of her voice and it inspired me to record new songs but also to unite musically on stage".
One voice, a violin and a special orchestra that emits fire, with each musician playing 2-3 instruments… canon, accordion, trumpet, cello, lute, metallophone, piano, kahon, upright bass, astride, crust, tambourines, guitar, mandolin.
Alkistis Protopsalti and Evanthia Reboutsika will fill our hearts, they will embrace our dreams and take us on a musical journey to Greece, Istanbul, Egypt, the Balkans, in a program that the public of Athens adored!
Source : culturenow.gr
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Uncle Vanias from the historic Moscow Theater in Badminton

When one of the most importanttheatersof Europe, ofEvgeniy Vakhtagov(Vakhtangov) and a director with a unique
vision (Rim Tumin) join forces then we can only talk about an improbable, genius result.
A new subversive look at a classic masterpiece of Russian drama and a subversive theater, history, mythical, which carries in its scrolls the glory and the fragrance of allRussian theater. A wonderful one, almost mystical, meeting that we will have the unique opportunity to enjoy in Badminton, exactly as it was first performed in the theater itselfEugene Vakhtangovat 2 September of 2009.
Then the active reaction of the public, as well as the Russians, but also of foreign critics led even the Minister of Culture A. Avdeev to say characteristically that "this production is an amazing re-examination of Chekhov" expressing at the same time the certainty of its great worldwide success. Of course he was justified!
The vision of a theater group that could shake up the stagnant waters of the Moscow theater establishment, born in 1911 through the eyes and thoughts of a director and actor, by Eugene Vakhtangov. During his tenure the promising new theater saw itself steal the limelight from the rest of the more commercial "offshoots" of the Moscow Art Theater with just two productions (Maeterlinkck: The Miracle of St. Anthony 1921 by Gozzi : Turandor-1922).
That's how it is 1926, as expected, the theater was finally baptized with the name of its creator and the most important Russian directors rush to become part of his vision(Meyerhold, Popov, Zavadsky and Akimov). Especially Akimov's unorthodox translation of Hamlet with Shostakovich's music, the 1932, she was the one who introduced this theatrical microcosm to the whole world and caused the first waves of admiration inside and outside of Russia.
Among the important also directors, that run to contribute to the myth, we also discover Okhlopkov and Pogodin as well as a whole series of brilliant young creators who lead decade after decadeVakhtangov Theaterin the 21st century. The high artistic standards and the subversive look they introduce with each of their performances succeed to this day and keep it in its place, perhaps Russia's greatest theatrical myth.
One of those brilliant young creators, it's also Rimas Tuminas and it's not the first time he's produced a Chekhov play. The Three Sisters and his Cherry Orchard, they won public and critical acclaim. Chekhov's plays offer ground for exploration, clarification of the essence, justification of the species. Every Tuminas production is a new step towards the meaning of that mysterious word 'comedy', which so belies the context of the plot. Uncle Vanya's production has already been recognized as one of the best events of recent seasons in Moscow, while the work of S.Makovetsky and V.Simonov deserves to be mentioned in the world encyclopedia of theater.
The most interesting of course in the case of Rimas Tuminas, it is the way he perceives and "translates" this Russian classic masterpiece. No,  he didn't vandalize either, nor rewrite the text, didn't cut it either. Just read the text again, as if there were no interpretations before him. Why, there is nothing ordinary, beautiful, intimate. Chekhov's mansion surrounded by gardens does not exist, there are no comfortable armchairs, nor a table laid with a lace tablecloth and a warm samovar, nor the sense of a Home where many generations have lived... There is only empty space, deserted by life, the theater space with the gray corridors, an alabaster lion – a symbol of St. Petersburg – may be the birthplace of the ancestor who built the mansion, there is a workbench with rough slabs, an old sofa and several chairs.
Chekhov's characters, as Tuminas saw them and as embodied by the actors, strongly remind us of a part of ourselves. They live in conditions of conflicting ambitions, philosophize, they work hard or they are lazy, serve and consume. They are very different, but also similar – everyone's life went wrong. Why; We discover this from scene to scene, from the dialogues, the fights, revelations and sarcasm. People discover the principles of the theater of the absurd in the works of Chekhov. His characters say something and then do something else, while they think in a completely different way. Tuminas' Uncle Vanya deals with what the characters think and confess in times of spiritual turmoil. Sometimes they are incoherent, like Uncle Vanya or very violent, like Astrov. But their confessions burst forth from their souls so impetuously, like stepping out of a stuffy room into the fresh air.
"Our Uncle Vanias is needed today to support us, let's not be cynical, rude, unconscious people", λέει ο Rimas Tuminas. “With everything he faced in his life, he did not lose the virtue of honesty and continued to work. Near our theater, there is a monument to Princess Turandot. Maybe we should build a monument to Uncle Vanya".
In the best show for the 150 years of Chekhov, from the great Vagtagov Theater with the 100 years of theatrical history star, including, the award-winning "People's Artists" Sergey Macovetsky;, Ludmila Maksakova, Vladimir Simonov, Anna Dubrovskaya, Yury Kraskov και Galina Konovalova.
 
RIM TUMINAS (Artistic Director)
Winner of the State Prize of the Russian Federation and the Zolotaya Maska Russian Theater Prize.
He was born on 20 January 1952 in the city of Kelme (Lithuania). During the period 1970 – 1974 studied at the Lithuanian Conservatory. The 1978 graduated from the production department of GITIS (class of I. Tumanov). His first production was the play January by J. Radickov (1978) at the Drama Theater of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, while his first production in Moscow was O.Zagradnik's Peacock Tune (1979) at the K.S.Stanislavsky Theater. From the 1979 up to 1990, worked at the State Academic Dramatic Theater of Lithuania (State Academic Drama Theater of Lithuania), and from 1994 became its art director. The 1999, Tuminas left the theater, with the last productions being Oedipus Rex by Sophocles (1998) and Shakespeare's Richard III (1999). Rimas Tuminas directed more than 20 plays in many theaters in Lithuania and abroad. His work abroad includes Theios Vanias (1992) and the Seagull (1993) of Chekhov in Finland, and Moliere's Don Juan in Iceland (1995). The 1990, Tuminas founded the Small Theater of Vilnius (Small Theater of Vilnius).
There, the following productions were presented: Chekhov's Cherry Orchard (1990), Brecht's Galileo (1991), God, Smile to Us του G.Kanovichus (1994), Masquerade by M. Lermontov (1997), which also traveled abroad. (Finland, Sweden, Poland, Iceland, Ms.)  Tuminas' productions successfully participate in festivals such as the International Baltic Theater Spring, Baltic House, Life, Contact, International Chekhov Theatre Festival, etc. After the successful show Masquerade, which won the Russian National Theater Award Zolotaya Maska in the category "Best Foreign Production 1998" in Moscow and within the framework of the 3rd Chekhov Festival, Tuminas was invited to the Sovremennik Theater, where he produced Playing… Schiller! the 2000. The 2002, on the stage of the E.Vakhtangov Theater, Rimas Tuminas produced Gogol's The Inspector General. The 2007, after the death of M.A. Ulyanov, Tuminas accepted the proposal of the Federal Service for Culture and Cinema and the management of the E.Vakhtangov Theater, to become the Artistic Director of the Theatre.
Source : culturenow.gr