THEATRE GROUP OPERA

Theatre Group OPERA

Members
Theatre Group OPERA was founded in 2000 by a group of Greek theatre practitioners (director, actors, stage designers etc), most of them are graduates of the Drama School “Empros” (In Front), and who share a common artistic backgrounds and futures goals. Leader of the group is the composer and director Theo Abazis.
Theatre Group OPERA members are: Georgina Daliani  (actor), Danae Saridaki (actor), Fanny Panagiotidou (actor), Aspasia Papaiosif (actor), Alekos Anastasiou (light designer), Eleni Manolopoulou (stage designer), Stavroula Siamou (choreographer), Theo Abazis(composer-director), Irene Tsakiris (soloist), Costas Koroneos (actor).
Permanent partners of the group are: Nestor Kopsidas (actor), Elsa Andrianou (theatre researcher / dramaturge), Stathis Athanasiou (filmmaker), Stavros Gasparatos (musician), Vassilis Bramis (assistant director), Alexander Tsilfidis (musician).

Features of the Group
The special feature of the Group in its queries and performances is the use of  the individual elements of a performance such as speech, music, song and movement which do not obey to a given hierarchy, but they are structured each time in a different way: sometimes in  terms of a musical score, sometimes in terms of theatre movement etc. This constant interpenetration of these elements creates new images of expression, rich in form and content.
            OPERA was introduced in the Greek theatre with its first performance The Learned Ladies (Les Femmes Savantes) by Moliere. Since then all OPERA's performances aim at seeking a different style using a specific goal each time. At the same time OPERA's repertory is characterized by a thematic and dramaturgy range, form research, conjuction of speech and music and evolution of all the individual theatre elements such as acting, music, movement etc.
            OPERA's last performance was The Misanthrope (Le Misantrhope) by Moliere, after a 10 year period of constant presence in the Greek Theatre. In this performance  main objective of the group was to study the poetical writing of Moliere. 
            In past performances such as Four Scenes of Love by Lukas Barfuss, OPERA worked one of the basic elements of theatre: relationships. In the performance Jeff Koons by Rainald Goetz OPERA searched the limits of speech action: monologue and chorus. In Liebestod (devised theatre by the group) OPERA was focused on the contradistinction between theatre, music, dance and video as absolute and complete structures. 
            In the performances The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov and Jacques and his Master by Milan Kundera OPERA searched the conditions of stage narration and in the performance Look at me (based on different novels by V. Raisis, A. Stamatis, T. Kushner, W. Finn, J. Gard, Str. Paschalis) OPERA evolved contemporary images of music theatre in a compact structure.
            Conclusively, OPERA's work extends to many research areas trying to evolve  theatre creation. It is very important to mention that in its 10 year presence all the works OPERA were well-received by the audience and theatre critic respectively.