Exhibitions
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The tribute to the renowned set designer-director and former GNO Artistic Director is completed with an extended exhibition on his work, that will run from February 4th to March 10th 2018, Monday to Sunday 09.30-21.00, at the National Library of Greece Patio (4th floor) at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. The exhibition is co-organised by the Greek National Opera, the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (MIET), the National Library of Greece and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. The exhibition is a donation by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
Curator of the exhibition, visual artist Adonis Volanakis, apprenticed to Stefanos Lazaridis and collaborated with him at the English National Opera. Stefanos Lazaridis’ tribute exhibition is the first solo exhibition of his artistic oeuvre globally. Lazaridis, based in London, extended the range of scenography to dramaturgical visual spaces, by raising meaningful questions rather than giving “scenographic solutions”, not only on Europe’s most important operatic stages but also in bigger spaces, like stadiums, where he designed historical performances breaking away from all conventional designs.

The exhibition unfolds a visual timeline starting from the beginning of his career with paintings of set and costume designs, in which one can discern the influences from his apprenticeship with Nicholas Georgiadis, another world-wide famous artist; it continues with works of mixed techniques, collages and models, as well as videos from performances and interviews. The exhibition has a playful character and is completed by photographs from his own research on visual arts, his director’s notes on texts and letters. What is highly impressive in his work is the fact that it is hard for anyone to tell the difference between the photographs of his exceptionally detailed models and the photographs of the actual performances.
The most common leitmotif in Lazaridis’ work is the cube; that is also the inspiration of the exhibition. It is thus in cube rooms where his most important collaborations with theater and opera directors evolve, such as with the famous Yuri Lyubimov – on Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed (1985) in London, Paris and Milan and Rigoletto (1983), which caused a scandal among the Italian conservative audiences; with David Pountney – transforming the history of the English National Opera with their numerous collaborations in the 80’s and their historical productions of The Flying Dutchman (1989) and Nabucco (1991) at the Bregenz Opera on the Lake in Austria with clear reference to the ancient Greek theater of Epidaurus; with Steven Pimlott – on Carmen (1989) at Earl’s Court with 15,000 spectators every night; and with Keith Warner – on Lohengrin (1999) in Bayreuth and Wagner’s tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung (Der Ring des Nibelungen) at Covent Garden.

In the rest of the cubes one can come across the productions in which Lazaridis acted both as a director and a set-designer: the successful tour of Duran Duran in America (1993), Orpheus and Eurydice (1993) for Sydney Opera House, Oedipus (1989) and the Bluebeard’s Castle (1990) for the Scottish Opera and Dimitris Dimitriadis’ the Beginning of Life (1995) at Amore Theater in Greece. In 2000, in his role as chief visionary, he undertook the artistic and visual design of eight productions for the Italian Season at the English National Opera. 

Since August 2013, the Stefanos Lazaridis archive is kept at the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (ELIA/MIET), following the generous donation of his late partner, Timothy Williams. It covers a period from 1964 to 2010 and includes exhibits, designs and models from the artist’s entire artistic creation.

Artistic Director of the Greek National Opera, Giorgos Koumendakis, who programmed and organized the Stefanos Lazaridis tribute, notes: “Our three-year artistic programming moves towards a renewal path that will expand the prospects that Stefanos Lazaridis’ tenure at the Greek National Opera opened up. In this exhibition, the Greek audience will have the opportunity to discover the range of his work, through models, photographs and archive material that covers nearly forty years of creation. A small homage to the renowned Greek opera artist, who left a lasting imprint”.

Stefanos Lazaridis: cynical romantic

An exhibition dedicated to the work of the renowned Greek set designer-director and former Artistic Director of the Greek National Opera.

Research, curating: Adonis Volanakis

Archive advisor / Organisations’ coordinator: Orsia Sofra
Design: Adonis Volanakis, Yannis Arvanitis
Associate: Isma Toulatos
Lighting design: Valentina Tamiolaki
Prints and Drawings Paper Conservator of National Bank Cultural Foundation (MIET): Maria Alexiou
Curator of the Performing Arts Department of MIET/ELIA: Constantina Stamatoyannaki
Assistant curator: Yannis Thanasoulias
Architectural design collaborators: Lydia Antoniou, Giorgos Kalyvis, Sofia Tektonidou
Model reconstruction: Matt Deely 

 Curator of the exhibition, Adonis Volanakis, will guide tours on the following dates:

  • Sunday 11/2 at 12.00
  • Tuesday 20/2 at 19.00
  • Thursday 1/3 at 19.00
  • Saturday 10/3 at 19.00

Reservations: + 30 2130885700 (Monday to Sunday 09.00-21.00). 

For special guided tours for schools or institutions and for tours in English: info@nationalopera.gr

Production: Greek National Opera, in collaboration with the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (MIET), the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center and the National Library of Greece.