Drama out of a crisis
The Ancient Greeks used the stage to reflect their turbulent times , and today’s Athenians are doing the same, finds Peter Cunningham
Athens in winter is bliss. The sun is high – giving two hours more daylight than in Ireland – and no crowds. Plaka, the once artisan village that sprawls around the base of the Acropolis, is still drenched in bougainvillea and at night glitters with festive lights. No queues for the Parthenon or the Ancient Agora. Chilly out of the sun but all the cafes on Andreou Street are southfacing and their cappuccinos cost only €2.
I’m here to see La Bohème by Puccini, performed by the Greek National Opera in their breathtaking new home near Piraeus, 25 minutes from the city centre.
Opera’s spiritual home is here in Athens. In ancient Greece the chorus, a character in itself, represents the voice of the common people.
My hotel, AthensWas, is beside the Acropolis. This is a find. Apart from being very comfortable, serving a great breakfast and offering intimate night-time views of the Parthenon from its rooftop bar and restaurant, everyone in this boutique hotel is exceptionally pleasant and intent on spoiling their guests.
It’s a short uphill walk from AthensWas on one of the winding roads that approach the Acropolis. This would be a lovely spring day in Ireland. Shirt-sleeves weather. None of the frantic crowds jamming the streets in 35 degrees of heat. If you want to see Ancient Athens in comfort this is the time of year to do so.
I am standing on the steps of the Parthenon, looking out at the distant Mediterranean
within 15 minutes of leaving my hotel. Playwrights like Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes put on their dramas here 2,500 years ago in what were turbulent times.
The Acropolis Museum, on the slopes of the great outcrop, contains all the archaeological artefacts that have been found on the site – statues of delicate beauty, carvings that pre-date anything else in Western Europe. The museum is a lovely, calm place in which to spend an hour or so and today I almost have the place to myself. After a dip into the shops on Plaka, I grab a taxi in Monastiraki and head out to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre (SNFCC) that overlooks the port of Piraeus.
Opened in October 2017, this world-class centre cost €630m to build, funded by the estate of the Greek shipping magnate, Stavros Niarchos.
Designed by Renzo Piano, this is now the new home of the Greek National Opera and the Greek National Library. An extensive park surrounds the centre and incorporates two lakes and an ice rink. The Tower of Books in the new library soars the full height of the building.
This new centre, already humming with energy and activity, is a powerful affirmation of all that is good about Greece. Despite the country’s well-known economic problems – ‘the crisis’ is still an everyday reality here – the SNFCC is a cultural facility the likes of which Ireland can still only dream of.
Greece, the birthplace of democracy, has survived far worse struggles over the centuries than the demands of the European Central Bank. The soaring new opera and library are a major shot in the arm to boost morale and the economy beyond all current expectations.
La Bohème is not on for another 24 hours – it’s a sell-out. I nip back into central Athens and go online to find a restaurant close to the hotel. The result is Balcony, which, as its name suggests, is a restaurant on the first floor of a corner building, a stone’s throw from the Acropolis Museum. I’m joined by an old friend. Seated at bench-type tables, we have fish soup, octopus carpaccio with tagliatelli, crab risotto, lemon tart and two glasses of wine for €54. Unmissable.
The next morning, I am persuaded to go for a swim in the sea off a tiny beach in Vouliagmeni, a 30-minute drive from central Athens. My friends keep telling me that it will be warmer than Ireland in summer – but I’m not convinced. Before I know it, I’m swimming in the crystal clear sea. I stay in for 15 minutes. And yes, it is still warmer than the sea in Ireland during August, despite the fact that this is mid-winter.
La Bohème starts at eight that evening but I’m there by seven in time to soak up the atmosphere. The opera house lobby is cool and minimalistic, with an almost Nordic feel coming from its tiers of wood, steel and glass.
Soon it becomes clear what the lobby is meant to do: it’s a preparation for the red-hot opera hall itself, a 1,400 seater triumph of cherry-wood panelling and bright red walls. This is a modern European opera house with knockout acoustics, up there with Oslo, the Teatro Real in Madrid, and Opera Bastille, Paris.
The themes of love, humour, poverty, sickness and death that so powerfully drive La Bohème are more than relevant for an opera performance in modern Athens. Puccini’s emotional directness drives the narrative through the insistence of his music and the lyrics. Directed by Graham Vick, who has worked at the Wexford Opera Festival, the set is modern, minimalistic, sharp. Angelos Samartzis, who plays Rodolfo, is a young Greek tenor of great power whose sustained
higher notes have a rare sweetness. Mimi, played by Anna Stylianaki, brings considerable dramatic presence to her role. Next day, in the southern suburb of Glyfada, I sit in the sun outside a cafe, watching passersby dressed as if winter never existed. Athens in winter is a new discovery. The living is easy. Western civilisation began here for a reason. Peter Cunningham’s most recent novel, Acts Of Allegiance, is published by Sandstone Press.