7 Deaths of Maria Callas by Nikodijević, Alkaen (2022/2022), Ohjannut Marina Abramović, Musiikinjohto Yoel Gamzou, Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy

No singer can ignore the dramatically dying woman; the most famous arias in operatic history belong to her. Maria Callas has also died many times in her career. The performance icon Marina Abramović takes seven of her opera deaths as a starting point: she extracts them from the plot and experiences them herself, projected on a video screen. Each time the artist is killed in a different way. The aesthetically exaggerated pain ritualizes and stylizes Callas' love and death into a myth. Parallel to the video action, seven sopranos sing the famous Callas arias live. At the end of the evening, Abramović himself is on stage when it comes to the death of the person Maria Callas and reality and her portrayal merge. In 7 DEATHS OF MARIA CALLAS, the Serbian artist deconstructs opera and puts it in dialogue with performance art: as her personal homage to one of the greatest singers of the time, but also as a snapshot of a life devoted to art; along with the pain and fascination it can cause. Born in what was then Yugoslavia, Marina Abramović has had a significant impact on the international art scene and especially performance art since the 1970s. Her partner in this production is Willem Dafoe, an American film actor on the video screen known for his portrayal of Vincent van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate and for his membership in the Wooster Group. The new composition by the young Serb Marko Nikodijević complements the original arias from the seven operas.