Requiem for the End of Love

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Requiem for the End of Love, a work that marked the artistic creation of the 1990s, signals the long-anticipated reunion of two emblematic fellow-travellers of the legendary Edafos Dance Theatre, Dimitris Papaioannou and Giorgos Koumendakis, in a new reading by the internationally acclaimed conductor Teodor Currentzis. This production is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

In 1995, at the Old Electric Power Station of PPC in Neo Faliro, Edafos Dance Theatre created a rupture in time with the presentation of the performance-installation A Moment’s Silence, conceived, directed, and choreographed by Dimitris Papaioannou, and featuring music by Giorgos Koumendakis in the first chapter and Manos Hadjidakis in the second chapter. With the trauma induced by the death of beloved friends from AIDS remaining unresolved and with “fear haunting the love lives of an entire generation,” Dimitris Papaioannou asked Giorgos Koumendakis to compose a “death tempest” – a requiem for those who lost their lives to AIDS. In that same performance, a reluctant hope for life was conveyed by Manos Hadjidakis’ Songs of Sin, based on poetry by Dinos Christianopoulos.

Thirty-one years later, after cycles that have opened and closed and paths that were sometimes parallel and at other times opposing, Dimitris Papaioannou sets up the great ladder for that stage installation at the Greek National Opera and reworks anew the Requiem for the End of Love, “one of Giorgos Koumendakis’ most powerful music pieces,” as he notes. The synergy of these two creators, who paved the way for a new stage language in dance, theatre, opera, and even at the Olympic Games ceremonies, is complemented by an ingenious maestro whose name is internationally hailed for his idiosyncratic interpretations of major symphonic works and operas: Teodor Currentzis. In the 2025/26 season, during which the GNO will be conversing with its historical past, the Artistic Director and composer Giorgos Koumendakis will bring onto the stage of the Stavros Niarchos Hall one of the iconic symphonic works from his early creative period, reviving, after three decades, a significant performance-installation that bears the signature of Dimitris Papaioannou.

Twenty-four years after the dissolution of Edafos Dance Theatre, which left an indelible mark on the Greek artistic scene during its seventeen-year existence, Greek and international audiences will have the chance to rediscover a work by Dimitris Papaioannou that strikes a balance between physical theatre and visual installation, based on a musical piece that serves as an early dramatic operatic harbinger in Giorgos Koumendakis’ compositional career. The dynamic collaboration between Papaioannou and Koumendakis during the 1990s led to the first public artistic acknowledgment of the AIDS epidemic in Greece and the rights of an entire community.