World Report

The Hellenic Festival is one of the oldest and most significant festivals of Greece

reece has a wealth of cultural events and attractions for the tourist to enjoy. Next year the Peloponnesian town of Patras will have a particular claim to attention as it has been selected to be the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2006. Hundreds of special events, exhibitions, festivals and presentations will be laid on for visitors.

One of the regular highlights of the Greek cultural year, and a tourist attraction in its own right, is the Hellenic Festival, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.

An eclectic mix of classical and contemporary forms of music, theatre and dance, the festival dates back to 1955 when the Athens Festival and the Epidaurus Festival of Ancient Drama staged their first performances at the Herodes Atticus Odeon and the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.

Since then the venues have hosted some of the greatest artists on the international cultural scene, names such as Maria Callas, Dimitris Mitropoulos, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Nureyev, Margot Fonteyn, Yehudi Menuhin, and Mstislav Rostropovich.

Today, the Hellenic Festival is one of the oldest and most significant cultural institutions of Greece. It continues to feature artists of top international standing, as is demonstrated by the programme for its anniversary year.
“Our aim is to present big names that attract large audiences in well organised productions,” says the festival’s General Manager and President Yannis Karachissaridis.

Running from May 20 to October 9, this year’s Athens Festival programme will range from works by Mikis Theodorakis, to opera by Rossini, Verdi and Cherubini, film music by Ennio Morricone, jazz by Duke Ellington, the musical Fiddler on the Roof and a gypsy flamenco musical.

Artists scheduled to take part include Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Jose Van Dam, Agnes Baltsa and Ute Lemper, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the English National Ballet.

On August 24, the Athens State Orchestra will celebrate the anniversary by performing exactly the same pieces that were played at the Athens Festival’s inauguration concert.

Other productions will include evenings of song, dance and ballet, plays by Shakespeare and Moliere, and a celebration of democracy staged by the Constantine Karamanlis Foundation.

From June 24 to August 27, the Epidaurus Festival will present plays by Euripedes, Sophocles, Aristophanes and Aeschylus in productions by the Greek National theatre, the State Theatre of Northern Greece, the Karolos Koun Art Theatre and the Cyprus Theatre Organisation.

• Central box-office of the Hellenic Festival: tel. +30 210 9282900