Prompters, Greek National Opera, 2025
- Big Olive
- Oct 20
- 2 min read
2025 marks the year Big Olive ventures into the world of core music production, co-producing The Prompters at the Greek National Opera’s Alternative Stage. Conceived, arranged, and conducted by Alexandros Gkonis, the concert blends Couperin and Monteverdi with E. Montale’s poetry and a new original score -an evocative tribute to the musicality of speech and the prosody of music.
Client: Open to the public
Event Venue: Greek National Opera - Alternative Stage
About Prompters
A tribute to the musicality of speech and the prosody of music, the concert The Prompters comes to the Greek National Opera Alternative Stage at the SNFCC in co-production with Big Olive.
“With this concert, we honour the people who, through their work, have ensured we have an everlasting companion. We sing the music in the same way we whistle it while going down the stairs; we articulate speech in the same way we hum it while walking in the street; and we want to remain faithful to this demanding carefreeness,” notes Alexandros Gkonis.
The concert’s programme is composed of two parts. The first part of the concert bridges French Baroque vocal chamber music with 20th-century poetry. The third motet from composer François Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres (Readings of Darkness) and Italian Nobel laureate Eugenio Montale’s poem “Al' amico Pea” (“To my friend Pea”) are combined into a single work. Blending these two diverse narratives into a single musical piece, one maestro, two singers, one actress, and a string quartet carve out a path for unprecedented coexistence and conversation.
The second part of the concert includes ten pentatonic madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi and five additional poems by Montale (translated into Greek by Nikos Aliferis). Fifteen brief and self-luminous pieces, each following the previous, take audiences on a journey from rich Baroque sounds to a more elegant and delicate musical whisper, which harmoniously blends with the recitation.
“Montale’s nobleness of thought and sweet cynicism, alongside Monteverdi and Couperin’s exquisite music, create a co-existence that we believe should be presented to a wider audience as a unified piece. The three of them were charismatic individuals. They remain highly captivating and difficult to resist, and it is always a pleasure to dedicate our time to them”, remarks Gkonis.
The set has been visually curated by Konstantinos Pittas.
Performing are the sopranos Marietta Sarri and Irini Bilini-Moraiti, along with actress Katrina Patsiani.
Featuring a string quartet: Rrezarta Krujia (violin Ι), Dimitris Kouzis (violin ΙΙ), Faidon Vryniotis (viola), Sofia Efkleidou (violoncello).
Images: Giannis Antonoglou, Ioanna Liarou
