An opera-project by Serbian-born conceptual/performance artist, Marina Abramović, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas - a co-production involving Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Greek National Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opéra national de Paris and Teatro San Carlo di Napoli - premièred in Munich in September 2020, while this revival by English National Opera, directed by Georgine Maria-Magdalena Balk, keeps good company with performances at the Royal Theatre Carré, Amsterdam and the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona.

A well-chronicled singer always hitting the headlines, Callas’ private life, so interwoven with her public life, has fascinated Abramović for decades. Therefore, she conceived this opera-project on Callas as a homage and exploration of this great prima donna, who was unpredictable, temperamental and fiery right down to the core.

Interestingly, Abramović (who wrote the libretto in conjunction with Petter Skavlan but totally responsible for direction and set design with Anna Schoetl, revival set designer) first heard Callas sing on the radio when she was 14 years old while living in Yugoslavia (Belgrade) and at such a young and impressionable age her voice truly caught her attention and fired her imagination.

In fact, Abramović became obsessed by Callas reading biography after biography to learn more about her while she feels she has a close affinity with her inasmuch as she shares the same zodiac sign, Sagittarius, while both women had mothers they deplored.

Immortalised through her place in popular culture, Callas (lovingly referred to as ‘La Divina’) is invoked on stage through seven of her most famous arias with each character, true to most 19th-century opera scenarios, oppressed, mistrusted and facing death.

All the arias were preceded by recorded introductions of a poetic-style nature written and pre-recorded by Abramović and also printed in the programme. Therefore, Japanese soprano, Eri Nakamura (a former Jette Parker Young Artist) sang Violetta’s aria ‘Addio, del passato’ from La Traviata, Kosovo soprano and a former member of the Young Artist Programme, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Elbenita Kajtazi, sang Tosca’s aria ‘Vissi d’arte’, British soprano and former Harewood Artist, Nadine Benjamin, sang ‘Ave Maria’, Desdemona’s aria from Otello and Korean soprano, Karah Son, sang Cio-Cio San’s ‘Un bel dì, vedremo’ from Madama Butterfly, an aria she was highly praised for when singing the role at Glyndebourne in 2016.

The critically acclaimed Russian mezzo-soprano, Aigul Akhmetshina (a former Jette Parker Young Artist) sang ‘L’amour est un oiseau rebelle’ more commonly known as the ‘Habanera’ from Carmen, a role she previously performed at the Royal Opera House and Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich. Although Carmen is a role that Callas never played on stage this is an aria she frequently performed in concert.

And making a welcome return to ENO, British soprano and former Harewood Artist, Sarah Tynan, sang Lucia’s aria ‘Il dolce suono’ from Lucia di Lammermoor, a role in which she’s well remembered for giving an outstanding performance at ENO in 2018 while another well-loved British soprano and former Harewood Artist, Sophie Bevan, sang ‘Casta Diva’ from Norma, one of Callas’ greatest roles.

The singers’ delivery of the arias was simple and straightforward. Uniformly attired in smart, grey-coloured, uniform-type dress with large white collars as worn by housemaids, I should imagine, in Callas’ era (courtesy of Riccardo Tisci for Burberry) they arrive on stage and in a dignified statuesque form manner they deliver the goods and politely walk off bypassing Abramović who’s portrayed as the sleeping Callas, haunted by her greatest roles.

To add to the overall stage picture, a series of short films, created by Nabil Elderkin, featured Abramović and American actor, Willem Dafoe, held one’s attention. For instance, the scenario of the downfall of Tosca was brilliantly crafted and set against a New York skyline witnessing Puccini’s suffering heroine falling from a skyscraper floating freely in air in a slow-motion sequence to her death while in Carmen Abramović, gloriously dressed as for a bullfight, becomes the toreador, fighting against and in deep conflict with Don José played by Willem Dafoe. However, I think the most striking scene was found in Otello witnessing Desdemona (who’s suffocated to death in the play) being entwined round her neck by a python.

Linking each scene, music by Serbian composer, Marko Nikodijević, was piercing and exciting stuff to hear filled as it was with penetrating and energetic syncopated rhythms which complemented well the soundscape by Luka Kozlovacki while Urs Schoenebaum’s lighting found the right mood at each and every turn of the slow but ever-changing scenario.

At the end of this masterful and dramatic opera-project on Callas so well constructed and executed by Abramović one witnesses her slowly moving from her luxurious bed towards the window of her opulent Parisian apartment at 36 Avenue Georges-Mandel adorned by Louis XIV furniture and Old Masters as befitting Callas’ position in high society. As she opens the shutters she’s greeted by a dazzling burst of sunlight, a last look at Paris before exiting her apartment. 

The seven performers then enter the room, tidying and cleaning in strict chamber-maid routine. One of them shoves on a scratchy 78 recording of Callas singing ‘Casta Diva’ while Abramović returns to the stage adorned in a sparkling gold-coloured evening dress, mimes the performance thus bringing the curtain down on a triumphant show about a triumphant artist whose life was overshadowed by her fiery relationship with Aristotle Onassis who dumped her for Jacqueline Kennedy. She died young - and in Abramović’s thinking - of a broken heart. Callas, I guess, wanted a sincere and deep-loving relationship which, sadly, seem to evade her.

The Israeli-American conductor, Yoel Gamzou, music director of Theater Bremen since 2017, conducted 7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the houses of the four commissioning bodies, looked at ease in the pit and did an excellent job with ENO’s orchestra who took their own bow at curtain-call to thunderous applause from a full house.

Marina Abramović’s all over town it seems with an exhibition running at London’s Royal Academy of Art, Piccadilly, to the end of the year. An art world icon and a performance art pioneer Abramović has captivated audiences by pushing the limits of her body and mind for the past 50 years and has earned worldwide acclaim as a performance artist. She has consistently tested the limits of her own physical and mental endurance in her work, subjecting herself to exhaustion, pain and even the possibility of death.

In her early work ‘Rhythm 0’, Abramović invited audiences to freely interact with her however they chose which famously resulted in a loaded gun being held to her head. Her later work ‘The House with the Ocean View’ saw her live in a house constructed in a gallery for 12 days. Held in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, the performance invited audiences to witness and share in the simple act of living.

This major exhibition at the Royal Academy presents key moments from Abramović’s career through sculpture, video, installation and performance. Works such as ‘The Artist is Present’ is strikingly re-staged through archive footage while others are performed by the next generation of performance artists trained in the Abramović method.

Under-21s are offered free tickets to all ENO performances at every level of the theatre while 21-35-year-olds can obtain discounted tickets. 
Tickets start from £10 (plus booking fee).
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