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"And then they murdered Zackie, who was a collaborator and friend," Ieropoulos said. The opera libretto was centered on "transgression and drugs" and was to be "outrageous and funny" according to FYTA. They set the opera in the Lab.Oratory, the underground gay sex club below Berlin's famous club Berghain. The early negative response made the duo want to be as provocative as possible. "So we knew this was our stage: a place where one kiss is not acceptable," explained Ieropoulos. In 2009, a production of the opera "Rusalka" at the Greek National Opera featured a gay kiss that caused so much outrage, members of the orchestra boycotted the work - even printing flyers stating that the production was inappropriate.
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They told us you can't do queer opera" - some people said it was transgressive," explained Ieropoulos during an interview with DW "We were really laughing at this - opera is definitely the campest form of performance, with the exception maybe of ballet."īefore his death in 2018, Zak Kostopoulos was well-known in the drag scene and known by his political stage persona, Zackie Oh "When we announced we were working on a queer opera people were really annoyed. They had previously put on the queer arts festival, Sound Acts in Athens, making a name for themselves. The opera commissioned FYTA at the end of 2017 to produce an opera of their choosing in whichever format they pleased. Spoiler alert: a gay love story is not one of them. Greek society is referred to as a 'museum' in which only select national myths can be displayed. In the re-worked film version, singers tell the tale of Orfeas' struggle, while video segments feature queer performers making political statements. The experimental work was meant to be staged at the Greek National Opera (GNO), but was transformed into a film after the 2020 pandemic lockdown canceled the performances.
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He attempts to bring back his love, Euri, and gain recognition for queer people in Greek society.įYTA: Foivos Dousos (left) and Fil Ieropoulos The opera film re-imagines Orfeas as the first gay prime minister of Greece. It's the brainchild of FYTA, the creative duo of Fil Ieropoulos and Foivos Dousos who began working together after meeting in Berlin a decade ago. Set in a futuristic sci-fi world, "ORFEAS2021" is a dramatic reworking of Monteverdi's original. The 1607 opera "L'Orfeo" by composer Claudio Monteverdi is a tragedy based on a Greek myth in which a powerful leader, Orpheus, attempts to go to the underworld to bring back his love, Eurydice, who dies suddenly on their wedding day. The post-modern work is the first queer opera in Greece and is dedicated to the memory of Zak/Zackie.
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Now, as a trial with those involved in his/her death takes place, a new political opera film "ORFEAS2021" was screened in Athens' Greek Film Archive January 19 and 26th. His/her picture is found on murals and street art all over the city with pride parades dedicated to his/her memory. Zak, who also went by his drag stage name Zackie Oh, has since become a symbol of the queer community's fight for recognition. In 2018, 33-year-old Zak Kostopoulos, a Greek artist and political activist for HIV-positive people such as himself, was brutally beaten on a street in central Athens and died.