Marina Abramović is one of the longest-expected stars at the 83rd edition of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the musical festival that will enliven Florence from April 23 to July 23, 2020, with a program including concerts, lyrical operas and performances, and the special participation of the famous Serbian artist. For Abramović, this new project – an opera-performance titled 7 deaths of Maria Callas – marks her comeback to Florence after The Cleaner, the successful retrospective that Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi devoted to her from September 2018 to January 2019.
In this opera-performance by Marina Abramović, running June 4, 5 and 6, 2020, at Florence’s Teatro del Maggio, the protagonist is Maria Callas, one of the best renowned, most beloved sopranos in the world, and an idol to Abramović herself. The show draws inspiration from the 7 lyrical heroines who died for love, all interpreted by Maria Callas throughout her career: Carmen, Tosca, Lucia, Butterfly, Norma, Desdemona and Violetta.
Coming in a new set-up by a co-production of the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Greek National Opera and the Opéra National de Paris, the opera will be directed by Marina Abramović, with music by Marko Nikodijević and Yoel Gamzou conducting the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra and choir. The performer will take the stage together with actors Nadezhda Karayazina, Whitney Morrison, Leah Hawkins, Adela Zaharia, Selene Zanetti, Gabriella Reyes de Ramirez and Hera Hyesang Park, wearing costumes by world-renowned couturier Riccardo Tisci, the current creative director of Burberry.
