As part of the International Porto Heli Festival, a staged and scenographed Liederabend featuring Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang and Yiannis Konstantinidis’ 20 Songs of the Greek People was presented in collaboration with the Staatstheater Augsburg, its Artistic Director André Bücker, and Opera Asia. The production successfully created a meaningful bridge between the two seemingly contrasting composers and works, weaving them into a unified dramaturgical narrative.
Conceived and directed by Heather Tan, the performance followed the soul of a fallen soldier who awakens in his former attic and encounters a mysterious, solitary doll. Through Schubert’s song cycle, memories of love, foreboding before battle, and bittersweet farewells resurfaced, while the surreal songs of Konstantinidis guided the soldier on a transformative journey toward reincarnation. The interplay between Schubert’s deeply emotional music and Konstantinidis’ modern idiom explored themes of memory, loneliness, transformation, and the eternal cycle of life.
The imaginative staging and scenography, created using found materials from the Manesis estate, provided a compelling framework for Ukrainian tenor Roman Poboinyi and Cypriot soprano Katerina Vassiliadou to fully раскры (showcase) both their vocal and dramatic abilities. They were accompanied by pianist Aulon Bino, whose evocative playing shaped the emotional landscape of the evening. The project marked a significant artistic collaboration and the beginning of an ongoing partnership between the participating institutions.
