Ancient drama meets modern dance and pop music blends with Greek song during the Athens Epidaurus Festival 2024, which kicks off on June 1 with some 93 productions featuring 2,500 performers from across the globe.
In its 69th year, the annual festival, an integral part of Greek summer, will run for 85 days and include everything from ancient Greek drama, dance, concerts, opera to screenings, discussions, parties, free events, tributes, and much more at the Ancient Epidaurus Theater, the Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, the National Library of Greece, the Athens Conservatoire, Peiraios 260, Theatron | Cultural Center Hellenic Cosmos, and Sotiria Hospital.
Among others, the Ancient Epidaurus Theater in the Peloponnese will feature works by ancient Greek playwrights such as Euripides, Aeschylus, and Aristophanes as well as avant-garde productions.
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens (the Irodion), will host opera, classical and popular music concerts, including the National Opera in Tosca, classical superstars Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma, La Traviata, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Simon Rattle at the podium, as well as Loreena McKennitt, Sting, and jazz legend Charles Lloyd with special guest Greece’s Maria Farantouri.
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LOREENA-MCKENNITT
Greek music will also feature with tributes to composer Mimis Plessas and performances by Greek stars Dionsysis Savvopoulos, Tania Tsanaklidou, Eleonora Zouganeli, and others.
“The Athens Epidaurus Festival raises the curtain this year in a world ablaze… With a program that is multivocal, feisty, consoling, political but also full of true beauty,” said the festival’s artistic director, Katerina Evangelatos, adding that the events, and particularly the recently launched GRAPE – Greek Agora of Performance initiative, aim “on the one hand, to present foreign artists to the Greek audience and on the other hand, to create the conditions, generate the means, for the promotion of Greek artists on international stages”.
For a detailed Athens Epidaurus Festival 2024 program, go here.