Charlotte: Operatic monodrama

Alternative Stage founding donor

Alternative Stage sponsor: PPC (Public Power Company)

The operatic monodrama Charlotte with music and a libretto by Lina Zachari, based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers) and Rolan Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse (Fragments d'un discours amoureux), will be presented at the GNO Alternative Stage for two performances on 13 and 15 June, at 20.30. The production is directed by Rinio Kyriazi, while Myrsini Hatzikonstanti conducts the eight-member instrumental ensemble. Mezzo-soprano Ioanna Forti will be performing the title role.

The work Charlotte centers on unfulfilled desire. The heroine, sunk in an unbearable grief caused by the suicide of her beloved Werther, finally confesses her love, in a transcendental delirium, where she pits herself against her limitations. In a dark room where she confines and traps herself, the conscious and the unconscious, truth and fantasy merge into a fluid musical environment. In her dream, the deepest and most unfamiliar parts of herself awaken – alarming, insatiable, tender, subversive –, weaving the web of her inner journey and opening unexpected pathways. By daring to listen to them, the heroine is eventually led to freedom.

In this “obscene” direction, as per Georges Bataille, which tarnishes the image of the “young Virgin Mary”, what is justified is not only the truth of the heroine but also the essence of lyric art: people sing when words are no longer enough.