Thessaloniki’s Concert Hall gears up for fall
Giacomo Puccini’s «Turandot,» an opera gala in memory of Maria Callas featuring soprano Mariella Devia, a series of concerts by the Arturo Toscanini Orchestra under the baton of New York Philharmonic director Lorin Maazel, a theater play for children and a Christmas gala, make up the Thessaloniki Concert Hall’s program of events for the September-December period. Art and finances At a recent conference, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall’s general manager, Giorgos Parisakis, and board member Stelios Nestor offered a roundup of the organization’s artistic and financial activities during the September 2004-May 2005 period. In all, there were 47 performances of 19 productions with 50,000 visitors. Ministry of Culture funding reached nearly 2.8 million euros while the cost of the events came to about 1.8 million euros. The traditional annual opera gala in memory of the diva Callas will open the venue’s fall activities on September 16, while the following month, the Macedonian Saxophone Quartet will inaugurate the «Music at the Foyer» series with an evening of jazz. A Thessaloniki Concert Hall production of Puccini’s «Turandot» will go on stage in November (11, 13, 16 and 19). Co-produced with the Municipality of Thessaloniki in view of the Dimitria Festival, the opera will feature soprano Jennifer Wilson. The first Thessaloniki Concert Hall international co-production is scheduled to take place in February 2006. In collaboration with the Bern Opera, Thessaloniki audiences will enjoy Vincenzo Bellini’s «Puritani.»
