ATHENS, Greece — Dozens of museum exhibitions, theatre productions, discussion boards and historic re-enactments were intended in Greece to this season to commemorate the bicentennial of this 1821-1832 Greek War of Independence.
But on account of this coronavirus pandemic, mezzo-soprano Artemis Bogri along with her fellow champions stepped onstage in a vacant theatre to carry out the Greek National Opera’s new production of”Despo,” among those occasions marking 200 years since the war which led in Greece’s autonomy from the Ottoman Empire and rebirth as a country.
Together with her sword increased but conquer certain, the title character in composer Pavlos Carrer’s 1875 opera chooses death within captivity, detonating ammunition stored in a fortress since Ottoman forces near.
“Fire! Fire!” Bogri staged in Despo Botsi’s final minutes as machine-generated smoke billowed out over the stage in a performance listed for streaming-only events scheduled for May.
“Artists prepare a couple of weeks to get a manufacturing and then take that job to an audience,” she explained. “Today, we must create that energy with no one there. That is not straightforward.”
Bicentennial events meant to show Greece’s contemporary accomplishments are postponed, scaled back or transferred online due to the pandemic. National parades by school kids place for Greece’s March 25 liberty day vacation have been canceled Friday amid the most recent spike in COVID-19 infections.
Much like the National Opera, other ethnic associations made little work groups to salvage their party plans as they confronted acute financial pressure because of lockdown steps currently in their fifth successive month.
Fans and musicians working on the creation of”Despo” wore masks throughout all rehearsals, many driven with a stubborn fix, Bogri explained.
“It is the creative arts which helped us keep moving” through the ordeal, she said. “However, the sad irony is the fact that, once all this is finished, there’ll be fewer people left. A huge portion of the arts world will be hauled away.”
