Electra 21 Greek Premiere

Announcement by the Municipality Chania, the Goethe Institute & the Chania Culture KAM

ELECTRA 21 Greek Premiere: Liquid Staging Installation to the music of Mikis Theodorakis – Chania 10th and 11th December

This Liquid Staging Installation by Asteris Kutulas to the music of Mikis Theodorakis is an absolutely new kind of live experience!

WHEN: 10th and 11th December
WHERE: Mikis Theodorakis Theatre, Venetian Harbour, Chania

With Jannis Papatzanis live on percussion

The Liquid Staging experience of ELECTRA 21 consists of the overall experience of the music, four documentaries running simultaneously and an installation. The audience decides for itself: Visitors can direct their attention in each case to whatever captivates them at the moment. In doing so, everyone perceives more than one thing at the same time.

This Liquid Staging show installation moves away from the one-dimensional seeing of the 19th century and offers the audience the polydimensional seeing, which corresponds much more to the complexity of our epoch. A new kind of live experience.

Electra, a timeless thriller. The father sacrifices the eldest daughter for power and fame. His wife slays him for it years later. Their children Electra and Orest kill her to avenge the father. A circle of hatred and destruction. No happy ending.

ELECTRA 21 | A musical recording, a ballet performance, a film production, a liquid staging installation

Credits ELECTRA 21 installation

Music by Mikis Theodorakis
Choreography by Renato Zanella | Electra: Sofia Pintzou
Cinematography by James Chressanthis ASC, GSC
Art Direction by Achilleas Gatsopoulos
Music Production, Editing & Mastering by Alexandros Karozas
Scenography by Georgios Kolios
Concept by Asteris & Ina Kutulas
Created & Directed by Asteris Kutulas

On the music of Mikis Theodorakis
„In general, Theodorakis understands the meaning and concept of setting to music differently from most opera composers: the text does not consist in an alternation of recitatives and arias, but in a classification of almost every vocal part into a continuous melismatic fabric, which is of course interrupted by choral parts and some orchestra introductions. Theodorakis sets to music by literally painting characters, emotions, situations, even contents with sounds.“ (Ilias Giannopoulos)

The ELECTRA storyline
The story begins early in the morning (where we experience Electra bemoaning her fate) and ends the same evening with Clytemnestra’s and Aigisthos‘ death, murdered by Orestes and his cousin Pylades.

Shortly after sunrise two strange men appear (but in fact it is Orestes and Pylades who have disguised themselves) and inform Queen Clytemnestra that her son Orestes has died in exile in a chariot race. Clytemnestra, who together with her lover Aigisthos has killed her husband Agamemnon and therefore fears that her son Orestes, although he fled years ago, could still be dangerous to her, is delighted to learn of his death. Now Clytemnestra sends a messenger to invite the two men to the palace to celebrate this positive news in the evening. When her daughter Electra learns of her brother Orestes‘ fatal accident, she tries in vain to persuade her sister Chrysothemis to revenge their father’s death. Electra is convinced that the mother and her lover must finally die, because they murdered Agamemnon and thus took from the children their father. Now believing that Orestes has been killed in an accident, Electra and Chrysothemis, the two daughters, are to carry out the act of revenge. The „strangers“, Orestes and Pylades, reveal their true identity to Electra, whereupon she instigates her brother to murder Clytemnestra. Orestes finally enters the palace, kills Clytemnestra and then, when he appears, her lover, Aigisthos.

Film Credits (4 movies)

Music by Mikis Theodorakis | Ballet Choreography by Renato Zanella | Cinematography by James Chressanthis ASC, GSC | Editing by Yannis Sakaridis, Asteris Kutulas & Stella Kalafati | Music Editing & Mastering by Alexandros Karozas | Art Direction by Achilleas Gatsopoulos | Cameras by Vasilios Sfinarolakis, Mike Geranios, Zoe Chressanthis, Hara Kolaiti, Dionissia Kopana, Stella Kalafati, Asteris Kutulas | Additional filming with Katherina Markowskaya by Sarah Scherer | Sound by Klaus Salge | Assistance to James Chressanthis by Hara Kolaiti | Still photography by Robin Becker | Production Management by Vassilis Dimitriadis | Associated Producer Christopher Kikis

Written & produced by Asteris & Ina Kutulas | Directed by Asteris Kutulas

Music Edition by Schott Music | Special thanks to Peter Hanser-Strecker & Margarita Theodorakis

Cameras provided by Alternative Digital Cinema, Los Angeles & Canon, USA | Special thanks to Joe Lomba & Tim Smith

Soundtrack with kind permission of Mikis Theodorakis & SCHOTT MUSIC, Mainz

Special thanks for the support to the Strecker-Stiftung, Frank Wunderatsch, Internationale Hofer Filmtage, Rafaela Wilde, Dimitris Koutoulas, Tim Dowdall, Gerd Helinski, Rena Parmenidou, Jörg Krause, Christian Jansen, Nana Trandou, Nikos Vlachakis, Jan Perray, Oliver Schulze, Lefteris Veniadis, Alexander Kutulas, Rafika Chawish, Hofer Filmtage Team & Thorsten Schaumann