August 18, 1955
ATHENS FESTIVAL: As the opening of the first Festival of Athens approaches, the organizing committee is stepping up preparations to ensure that all goes well at performances. The electric company has installed flood-lighting around the Herod Atticus Theater and along Dionyisiou Areopagitou Street. The Municipality of Athens has also been called on to do its part in improving the city’s appearance during the festival by flood-lighting the Acropolis on the night of the premiere, August 24, as well as during the first performances of the National Opera and National Theater, that is on August 27 (for Gluck’s «Orpheus»), September 1 (for Mozart’s «Idomene»), September 6 (for Stravinsky’s «Oedipus»), September 11 (for Euripides’ «Hecuba»), September 14 (Sophocles’ «Oedipus Rex») and October 1 and 2 (for concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dimitris Mitropoulos). Orders have also been given to international airlines and military aircraft not to fly over the theater or its surrounding areas for the duration of the festival.
