We have successfully reached the 13th installment of this new column, and I hope you haven’t gotten bored yet! Personally, I enjoy this communication, which might seem a bit one-sided, but if you bear with this column for the next few months, I’m preparing some small surprises, including meetings in the autumn for us to chat in person. We’ll have a break sometime during the summer, but from September onwards, we’ll have a lot to talk about.
So, I’m reading that the Odeon of Herodes Atticus will be closed for quite a long time, which means the Athens Festival loses its most important venue for opera and classical music. Does this mean that next year’s Festival will not feature classical music? I hope not, and knowing Michail Marmarinos, who will take over the Festival’s directorship in a few months, succeeding the absolutely worthy and successful Katerina Evangelatou, I believe he has already thought about what he will do. I haven’t had the chance to meet him (I will seek to do so in the coming months) for him to tell me what ace he will pull out of his sleeve, because a Festival without classical music is inconceivable. I remind you that the summers of Athenians, as well as the thousands of tourists now flocking to Athens, are full of music of all kinds, but the music that interests us here has primarily been performed at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus for decades. Of course, the marbles and archaeological sites need their maintenance (we take care of them to preserve them), and solutions will be found. All it takes is an open mind and willingness.
Classical music and opera are difficult genres to enjoy as they should be. I confess that the Odeon of Herodes Atticus is not exactly the ideal venue for enjoying this kind of music, and I don’t just mean the inherently uncomfortable seats. However, the Odeon is an emblematic, unique space, and this is evident even in the eyes of foreign soloists and conductors who come to perform there. I will never forget the look on Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s face; she couldn’t get enough of gazing at the Acropolis above our heads when she played Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London last year.
So, while awaiting developments, I urge you to attend at least one concert at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus this year, because it will be missed from our cultural life, and it would be good to bid it a temporary farewell as it deserves this summer. I hope to see you there at one of the concerts…
