NEWS

Dich, blaue Halle…

With a one-hour cerem­o­ny the new inte­rim venue of the Main­fran­ken Thea­ter Würz­burg was ope­ned on Octo­ber 1st: the Thea­ter­fa­brik Blaue Hal­le on the pre­mi­ses of va-Q-tec AG in the Dürrbachau.
The fes­ti­vi­ties were ope­ned by Ilia Papandreou as guest star of the evening, to which repre­sen­ta­ti­ves from poli­tics and eco­no­my as well as fri­ends and spon­sors of the Main­fran­ken Theat­re were invi­ted. She sang the famous aria of Eli­sa­beth from Wagner’s Tann­häu­ser, accom­pa­nied on pia­no by pia­nist Sil­via Vass­al­lo Paleo­lo­go. With a wink, Ilia Papandreou paid homage to the spe­cial spi­rit of the place by into­n­ing the first lines in the text ver­si­on “Dich, Blaue Hal­le, grüß’ ich wieder”.
Ilia Papandreou’s last guest appearance at the Main­fran­ken Theat­re was in 2019, whe­re she made her acclai­med Ari­ad­ne debut in Domi­ni­que Hor­witz’ pro­duc­tion of Ari­ad­ne auf Naxos.
„Shining heights, fine emotions“: Ilia Papandreou celebrated as Ariadne

„Shining heights, fine emotions“: Ilia Papandreou celebrated as Ariadne

On 26th Janu­ary Ilia Papandreou gave her ova­­ti­on-cele­­bra­­ted debut at the Main­fran­ken Thea­ter Würz­burg as inter­pre­ter of the title role in Richard Strauss’ ope­ra Ari­ad­ne auf Naxos. Under the musi­cal direc­tion of GMD Enri­co Cales­so and direc­ted by Domi­ni­que Hor­witz, Ilia Papandreou per­for­med in a Strauss ope­ra for the first time sin­ce her debut as Marschallin.

“With a warm voice and gre­at inward­ness, Ilia Papandreou cap­ti­va­tes her audi­ence,” says Frank W. Brei­ten­stein in BR Klas­sik. For Rena­te Frey­ei­sen (O‑Ton), Ilia Papandreou stands out from the cir­cle of “out­stan­ding sin­­ger-actors […] alo­ne through her wistful ari­as”: “Ilia Papandreou gives [the Ari­ad­ne] with her high­ly dra­ma­tic sopra­no bril­li­ant heights, fine emo­ti­ons in ever-roun­­ded lines, and she also looks dazz­ling, per­so­ni­fy­ing her grief and lon­ging for death convincingly. ”

Mathi­as Wie­demann (Main-Post) reco­gni­zes in the pri­ma don­na or Ari­ad­ne the “dra­ma­ti­cal­ly most ungra­teful role” of the ope­ra, “but Ilia Papandreou sings hers­elf with a lar­ge, clear sopra­no and lumi­nous pre­sence in the spot­light. Abo­ve all, it is her voice that car­ri­es the tre­men­dous melo­dic rich­ness of the music. ”

Debut in Dessau

Debut in Dessau

As Prin­cess Jaros­law­na in Alex­an­der Borodin’s rare­ly heard ope­ra Prin­ce Igor, Ilia Papandreou made her suc­cessful debut at the Anhalt Thea­ter in Des­sau in May and June, adding ano­ther Rus­si­an sopra­no role to her exten­si­ve repertoire.
In the con­cer­tan­te per­for­man­ces with the Anhal­ti­sche Phil­har­mo­nie Des­sau under the musi­cal direc­tion of Kapell­meis­te­rin Eli­sa Gog­ou the audi­ence and cri­tics were very enthusiastic:
“The gre­at guest soloist Ilia Papandreou,” as Johan­nes Kil­leen is wri­ting in the Mit­tel­deut­sche Zei­tung, “made the pie­ce espe­ci­al­ly shi­ning with her lyri­cal and dra­ma­tic expres­si­ve­ness, clear style and high notes that never sound­ed thin or sharp.”

Ilia Papandreou nominated as “Female Singer of the Year”

Ilia Papandreou nominated as “Female Singer of the Year”

Ilia Papandreou was nomi­na­ted as “Fema­le Sin­ger of the Year 2018” for her inter­pre­ta­ti­on of Des­de­mo­na in Giu­sep­pe Verdi’s Otel­lo in the cur­rent Opern­welt cri­tics’ poll. She had given her cele­bra­ted and much-acclai­­med debut in May this year at the Erfurt theatre.