Athens' ancient theater hosts final festival season before closing for three-year restoration

ATHENS, Greece -- For visitors to Athens, the past Odeon of Herod Atticus is the must-see theatre astatine the ft of the Acropolis. Artists revere it for the majestic signifier wherever legends person performed. And for the Greek capital's residents it is the touchstone of their summertime taste calendar.

The Odeon of Herod Atticus precocious opened the 70th play of the yearly Athens Epidaurus Festival, a cherished yearly contented for galore Greeks. But this variation marks the past earlier the theatre that’s much than 18 centuries aged shuts down for attraction and restoration enactment that is expected to past astatine slightest 3 years.

While theatre and creation grace its stage, euphony is its cornerstone. Renowned artists who person performed present see Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Coldplay, and Greece’s ain Maria Callas.

Its closure volition beryllium a profound nonaccomplishment for spectators who person agelong enjoyed first-class performances nether the stars successful 1 of the world’s astir iconic open-air theaters.

“When (people) deliberation of the Athens taste scene, everyone thinks of the festival and Herodion,” said Katerina Evangelatos, the festival’s creator manager since 2019, calling the theatre by its commonly utilized Greek name. “It has go a synonym of the festival. It is the bosom of the festival.”

When the Greek National Opera opened this season’s festival with Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot, it erected impermanent structures down the Roman-era odeon’s arched walls to grow disposable abstraction for performers’ dressing rooms. The imperishable underground facilities weren’t enough.

The accumulation besides needed much abstraction wrong the venue to accommodate the standard of the production.

To conscionable the opera’s scenic and casting demands, a unit constructed a wooden, balcony-like level to partially widen implicit the orchestra pit.

This adaption allowed abstraction for the ample formed and analyzable staging, including the emblematic country successful which the emperor, Turandot’s aged father, is ceremonially rolled retired successful his towering throne to ticker suitors effort to lick his daughter's riddles — astatine the hazard of execution. The country requires important simultaneous on-stage beingness by aggregate performers.

Giorgos Koumendakis, the Greek National Opera’s creator director, describes the Herod Atticus Odeon arsenic “a strained, fatigued space” which inactive commands wide veneration.

“People who are conscious, cultivated, educated — who recognize what this abstraction is, its humanities significance, the value of the festival, and the past of the Greek National Opera — respect it profoundly and participate it astir reverently,” said Koumendakis. “It’s similar entering a temple — a temple of creation — and it genuinely has an impact. I tin spot it from the singers and the orchestra, too. When they travel here, they genuinely privation to springiness their all."

During erstwhile restoration and conservation projects, the Herod Atticus Odeon had surfaces cleaned, cracks filled with grout and caller seating installed. This time, the scope of the enactment volition beryllium connected findings from the studies inactive underway.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said that though the venue’s closing day is certain, astatine the extremity of summer, its reopening is not.

“This volition beryllium connected the problems that the studies volition reveal,” she said successful an interrogation to Greek vigor presumption Skai past month. “What is definite is that astatine slightest 3 years volition beryllium needed.”

The closure of the Herod Atticus means the Athens Epidaurus Festival volition request to see alternatives for the adjacent fewer years. Evangelatos reflected connected the festival’s 70 years, noting that it began during Greece's turbulent postwar years of governmental part and economical hardship.

“It’s a occurrence of endurance and creator legacy,” she said.

On the festival's opening night, the backstage country was abuzz with last preparations, with wigs styled, masks adjusted and costumes touched up.

Soprano Lise Lindstrom, who starred arsenic Turandot, took successful the gravity of the setting.

“It’s an perfectly magical ambiance here. To beryllium capable to basal connected the signifier and look straight up and spot the Acropolis is simply a small spot mind-blowing, I person to admit,” she said. “And past besides to look retired and spot each the radical sitting determination and conscionable being truthful absorbed into the performance. It’s very, precise almighty and magical.”

All eyes were connected Lindstrom arsenic she took halfway signifier beneath the stars — marking the commencement of a last play earlier a agelong intermission.