Learning & Participation Department of the Greek National Opera
Co-OPERAtive: An intercultural opera hub for teenagers
Music theatre performance
Go to Come Back
Friday 19 2023 · Starts at: 20.30
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage - SNFCC
Music score: Nikoleta Hatzopoulou
Texts, dramaturgy: Eleni Moleski
Direction, choreography: Christos Strinopoulos
Sets, costumes: Pavlos Thanopoulos
Lighting: Marietta Pavlaki
Artistic associate: Nikos Ziaziaris
Piano: Christos Karavasilis
With the participation of a mixed group of Athenian teenagers and unaccompanied minor asylum seekers from the organisations Kinoniko EKAV, Evropaiki Ekfrasi and ZEUXIS
Admission will be free upon priority vouchers that will be distributed from 11 May at 12.00,
exclusively via ticketservices
Co-OPERAtive, the first intercultural youth opera hub in Europe completes its third year of implementation and presents the music theatre performance Go to Come Back, on Friday 19 May 2023 at 20.30, on the Greek National Opera Alternative Stage at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.
Go to Come Back to music by Nikoleta Hatzopoulou, with texts and dramaturgy by Eleni Moleski, and directed and choreographed by Christos Strinopoulos is a reflection on the coming-of-age process and the quest for personal identity. Its plot transports us to a place that is familiar to all of us, the adventurous process that makes us understand ourselves by going after our dreams, expectations and talents. The sets and costumes are by Pavlos Thanopoulos and the lighting by Marietta Pavlaki. The creative team comes complete with performer Nikos Ziaziaris. The performance is presented with the participation a mixed group of Athenian teenagers and unaccompanied minor asylum seekers who have been involved in the making of the work. Accompanying on the piano is Christos Karavasilis.
Awarded with the Education Prize by the European Organisation FEDORA in 2019, the educational programme Co-OPERAtive strives to bring opera closer to young audiences while foregrounding the intercultural diversity of modern-day Athens and the significance of social cohesion. In the context of the programme, a group of young Athenian teenagers and unaccompanied minor asylum seekers held meetings on a weekly basis under the guidance of artists and educators from the fields of music, theatre and opera and created their own music theatre performance.
Co-OPERAtive was realised in close collaboration with the organisations Kinoniko EKAV, Evropaiki Ekfrasi and ZEUXIS and with he kind support of Deipnosofistirion and Coca - Cola Tria Epsilon.
A few words about the process from the educational and creative team
The fundamental goal of these workshops was to give participants a strongly active role in the preparation of a music theatre performance, from the conception of the initial idea stage to its transformation into a finished work. The instruments used to develop the original raw material, the storyline of the performance, but also the twists and flow of the action were improvisation, theatrical games, and free writing exercises. Moreover, the music games, vocal improvisations and the formation in a chorus structure helped children familiarise themselves quickly with different ways of musical creation. At the same time, graphic scores in combination with vocal techniques inspired by screaming choirs and experimentations with the movement of sound in the space were also employed to create on the spot compositions and soundscapes that would accompany the theatrical action. We strived so that the result we would bring onto the stage would be the pure product of the children's participation in Co-OPERAtive. Close collaboration and constant exchange of ideas among the members of the creative team have been central to achieving this goal.
A few words about the performance
A group of young people meet up somehow unexpectedly and magically in a spooky building's reception hall. Soon they discover that this building must be a very weird school. A strange creature appears, the School Principal, who explains to them that they are there to find out more about themselves and answer the questions that all of them are afraid of: "What is their passion? What is their dream about the future?" Then he asks them to seek the answers by opening mysterious doors that lead to even stranger rooms. There they will come face to face with everything they are afraid of and must overcome. After this adventure is over, they end up in the big hall of miracles, where, putting together the clues they have collected on their trajectory, they realise something extremely important about life itself that makes this weird school seem no longer threatening.
GNO Learning & Participation Major Donor
