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Voskopoula
(The Shepherdess)

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OPERA: Text

Manos Hadjidakis Open-Air Theater, Heraklion

31/08/2021

        The Lyric Theater of Crete presents for the first time the one-act opera Voskopoula, based on the homonymous work from Cretan Renaissance. It is a pastoral romance, with main characters the shepherdess and the shepherd. They meet in the countryside and fall in love. They enjoy their love in the cave where the shepherdess lives, but the time comes when the shepherd must depart. He gives the promise to the shepherdess that he will return soon, but he fails to keep it as he gets ill. The shepherdess thinks that he has forgotten her and feeling hurt she falls ill and dies of her misery. When the shepherd returns, he finds her father who announces her death and takes him to her tomb. There the shepherd, devastated, curses himself.

         Bucolic poetry has been associated with opera since its inception. If the development of opera that took place in Europe had also taken place in Crete, Voskopoula could have been the libretto for an opera. We chose to realize this today, with an original musical composition written in 2021, which was accomplished with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports. The performance was organised by the Municipality of Heraklion and specifically by the department of the deputy mayor for culture and was part of the festival "Crete one history 5+1 cultures".

 

Creators:

Music: Dionysis Papamitsos

Conductor: Giannis Protopapas

Stage Director: Manos Christofakakis

Lighting & Set Designer: Alexandros Politakis

Cast

Shepherd - Manos Christofakakis

Shepherdess - Julia Nikitina

Father - George Psaroudakis

 

Chamber Orchestra of the Lyric Theater of Crete consisting of a string quintet, three wind instruments and a piano.

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