The song of Mrs. Domnica on nationalopera.gr/GNOTV

Η Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera presents the performance «The song of Mrs. Dominica» exclusively on GNO TV. The show will be available at nationalopera.gr/GNOTV from 16 July to 31 December 2021 with Greek and English subtitles, in the context of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Greek Revolution.

In the turbulent years of the Greek Revolution, a misunderstood heroine of the Struggle talks to herself, her time and the modern audience. The Song of Mrs. Domnitsa tells in its own way - in four acts with words and music - the story of the Thracian captain and heroine of the Greek Revolution, Domna Visvizis.

Between the warp and woof of historical events - years of romantic ideas, patriotic visions, bitter denials - the events of her troubled personal life: motherhood, widowhood, financial ruin, run like threads. Domna weaves her own destiny, a «humble patriot» who sacrificed her life and family «to build the golden palace of Freedom». In the new Greece, destitute and destitute, she received with difficulty a modicum of help. She never asked for or received any honours for her contribution to her country. She spent her later years in a little house by the sea in Piraeus. Perhaps, on the last afternoon before she passed away at the age of 67, she lit the candle in her room and, just before night fell, she heard a familiar breeze blowing from the window, brought from the Aegean Sea.

The song of Mrs.Domnitsa uses as raw material historical documents (archival records, testimonies of the time, documents, ship's logs, letters), which she processes in a variety of literary ways, from the demotic fifteen-syllable to the experiential writing, in order to convey the external reality of events and the inner life of the persons.

The story of Domna Visvizis, in the form of a monologue with standing choruses, is sensitively performed by the actress Syromo Keke and composed, through the means of musical theatre, by a female creative team consisting of the journalist/writer Maro Vassiliadou, the composer Martha Mavroidis, who interweaves traditional and contemporary sounds with knowledge, and the director Maria Maganari. A seven-piece musical ensemble and the female vocal ensemble chórés participate.

The production and the creation of GNO TV are implemented with the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] for the strengthening of the artistic extroversion of the Greek National Opera.

The music of the work is deeply influenced by the musical traditions of Greece and the Balkans. The composer Martha Mavroidis notes. The musical writing is layered, developing simultaneous musical actions, parallel universes that coexist at the same moment in time, so that the listener's consciousness expands to include them in a single musical experience. The ney, lyre and sazzi converse with the piano, cello and double bass, constantly forming new textures that regress between action and association. The female voice is central to the work, utilizing song as a means of expressing what cannot be said, but also as a way of empowerment, through the habituation of voices to polyphonic parts that combine traditional polyphony with contemporary harmony. The musical work is both a confession of admiration before the beauty and richness of traditional music, and the vast legacy of stirring lyrics and melodic kernels that are perpetually gestating, a legacy from the anonymous lyricist and musician who have held the art in their hands with care and sensitivity, to enrich it and pass it on to those who come after them.«.

On the text of the play, journalist/writer Maro Vassiliadou notes: «The first time I saw Domna Visvizis was in a bust in the Areos Field. She seemed to me somewhat grim in her tight headband, standing uncomfortably among the men of the honorary Avenue of Heroes. I didn't know her. And perhaps I still don't really know her, although I have spent nearly two years with her, trying first to reconstruct her life and then to put it on paper. But I love her as if she were my own person, an imaginary great-grandmother who came and stood close to my real grandmother: one a Thracian who was uprooted in 1821, the other a Asia Minor who lost her roots in 1922. In the Song of Mrs. Domnitsa, the fates of many women meet, because Domna lived, in one, many lives. All have her own voice: the love-struck bride of the 1800s, the little woman who lulls her children to sleep at sea, the widow who takes over the gouverneur of a warship in the fires of the Revolution, the pauper who seeks justice by standing up day and night before the doors of a faceless state administration. Which of them was passionate about the vision of freedom, which was afraid, which regretted the sacrifices, which was angry, which wept and then swallowed her tears?».

Directed by Maria Maganari. She underlines: «When I first read Maro Vassiliadou's play I sensed that she was moving in a similar area. The author created a heroine who enters the Revolution as one enters a dream. Our Domna is earthy, carrying the sounds, smells, and traditions of her land. She has feelings. She meets her destiny in the way of the heroes of folk song. In her life, the Revolution will create a break, or rather a rift: there will always be a before and an after. The struggle for freedom will be experienced as a place of female liberation, but also as a source of suffering and personal loss. The play, although set in a historical context, is a poetic work - or, better still, it is a song. It constantly asks to be experienced, to be sung, in order to reveal its richness. It revealed its secrets and its journeys to us slowly in rehearsals. Marriage, motherhood, war, mourning, memories: the sounds of a life. In Martha Mavroidis’ hands they became a fascinating song: The Song of Mrs. Dominica.».

Summer performances in Paros and Naxos

The performance The Song of Mrs.Domnitsas will be presented on July 27 at the Tower of Bazaios in Naxos, as part of the «Naxos Festival 2021», and on July 29 at the Archilochos Theatre in Paros, as part of the «Festival in the Park 2021».

First presentation / Commissioning of the Alternative Stage of the GNO
The song of Mrs. Dominica
In the context of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Greek Revolution

From 16 July to 31 December 2021 at the nationalopera.gr/GNOTV

The production was filmed without the presence of the public and with all the necessary protection measures by Covid-19 at the Alternative Stage of the GNO at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre on 24 April 2021.

Greek and English subtitles are available.

Music: Martha Mavroidis

Text: Maro Vassiliadou

Directed by Maria Maganari

Set - Costumes: Pavlos Thanopoulos

Lighting design: Maria Gozadinou

Music teaching - Conducting a vocal ensemble: Irini Pacea

The role of Domna Visvizis is played by Syrmo Keke

Musicians: Haris Lambrakis (ney), Nikos Paraoulakis (ney), Stratis Psaradellis (lyre), Martha Mavroida (sazzi, voice), Yannis Papadopoulos (piano), Giorgos Tamiolakis (cello), Giorgos Ventouris (double bass)

With the participation of the female vocal ensemble chórés

For the broadcast of the play The Song of Mrs. Domnica by GNO TV, tickets of 5 euros are on sale at www.ticketservices.gr and in https://tickets.public.gr/