Teatro di San Carlo will premiere Marina Abramović's opera project, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas—coproduction between Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro di San Carlo, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Greek National Opera Athens, Liceu de Barcelona, and Opéra National de Paris. The performance is centered on seven arias once performed by the American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas, featuring original music by Marko Nikodijević, and a series of short films co-starring Hollywood actor Willem Dafoe.
7 Deaths of Maria Callas is a milestone in contemporary opera, combining stage performance with video content. Intermezzos in a traditional opera are normally musical interludes between arias of light instrumental pieces. In 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, intermezzos are an audiovisual representation of Callas’ psychological condition as she reached the end of her life: The orchestra ringing to sinister clouds, swirling hypnotically across the theater’s large projection screen.
Behind these “visual intermezzos” was Marco Brambilla, an Italian-born Canadian artist whose prolific career involved pioneering the use of 3D imaging technologies in public installation and video art. He shares with NOWNESS a video art piece compiled of the seven turbulent skies that play during the intermissions. Inspired by films such as Kwaidan, Breaking The Waves, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Brambilla sought to recreate the analogue elements of cloud tank photography by running particle simulations of clouds generated on a computer. The results evoke what Brambilla calls an “uncanny valley,” or the unsettling feeling when something artificial feels almost real—a term borrowed from robotics and computer animation.
7 Deaths of Maria Callas is playing at Teatro di San Carlo from 13 May to 15 May 2022. You can find out more about the performances here
Credits | Director and sets: Marina Abramović, Co-director: Lynsey Peisinger, Conductor: Yoel Gamzou, Music: Marko Nikodijevic, Written by Petter Skavlan , Marina Abramović, Film director: Nabil Elderkin, Visual intermezzo: Marco Brambilla, Sound design: Luka Kozlovacki, Costumes: Riccardo Tisci for Burberry, Conception of the stage design: Anna Schöttl, Lighting: Urs Schönebaum, Dramaturgy: Benedikt Stampfli, Choruses: Stellario Fagone Film Actor and Performance: Marina Abramović, Film actor: Willem Dafoe, Violetta Valéry: (Hera Hyesang Park, Floria Tosca: Selene Zanetti, Desdemona: Leah HawkinsCio-Cio-San: Kiandra Howarth, Carmen: Nadezhda Karyazina, Lucia Ashton: Adela Zaharia Norma: Lauren Fagan, Bavarian State Orchestra, Extra choir of the Bavarian State Opera