MEDEA 21 – 1 Soundtrack. 4 films on 4 screens simultaneously. The audience in the midst of it. Polydimensional viewing as a new show format. An immersive 'Cinema 2.0' experience.
Music by Mikis Theodorakis | Choreography by Renato Zanella | With Maria Kousouni as Medea | Cinematography by Mike Geranios | Editing by Babette Rosenbaum & Asteris Kutulas | Art Direction by Achilleas Gatsopoulos | Scenography by Georgios Kolios | Music Production & Editing by Alexandros Karozas | Written & Produced by Asteris & Ina Kutulas | Co-Produced by Schott Music | Created & Directed by Asteris Kutulas
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MEDEA 21 – Loss of home and identity. Love, jealousy, murder. The mother kills her children. Disturbing beauty. No future perspective. Rebellious youth.
Medea betrays her family out of love for Jason. She helps Jason steal the Golden Fleece, slays her brother and flees her homeland. She and Jason soon have two sons, but Jason wants to separate from Medea, who has remained a stranger in his country. He takes Glauke, the king's daughter, as his wife. In revenge, Medea kills Glauke and the king on their wedding day. Then she kills her two sons to make Jason suffer eternally.
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Precisely synchronized with this MEDEA 21 music, the four films representing the following four levels (layers) of the complete work, MEDEA 21 (45min), on the four screens:
Screen/Movie 1: Love, jealousy, murder. The mother kills her children. A dance film – the performance of the MEDEA ballet by Renato Zanella at the „Apollo“ theater in Hermoupolis on Syros with the extraordinary Maria Kousouni as Medea. A mixture of classical ballet and modern expressive dance.
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Screen/Movie 2: Disturbing beauty. 15-year-old Bella in an „ideal world“ – as if not of this world – disturbingly idyllic, disturbingly beautiful. Nature, love, harmony. It seems almost unreal, a fiction. Not a fiction, however, is the book she is reading, the words of Anne Frank, who went into hiding in a backhouse in Amsterdam in 1944.
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Screen/Movie 3: No future perspective. Rebellious youth. The riots between 2010 and 2014 in Greece as a symbol of the resistance of the young generation against a violent and inhuman policy. The composer Mikis Theodorakis, who is over eighty years old, is also in the midst of these uprisings. Young people, full of rage and despair. Figures from another, bleak and traumatic world that have taken over everyday reality.
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Screen/Movie 4: Energy and freedom of the creative. Making-of for the dance film – the rehearsals for the ballet performance with the dancers and the choreographer Renato Zanella.
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Medea - a timeless thriller, retold in four parallel films, all four synchronized to the soundtrack music of Mikis Theodorakis.
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Composer's Statement on the Medea project on the occasion of the completion of the first film version in 2014 (Recycling Medea)
The tragic element in the music has captivated me more than any other from the very beginning. Without a doubt, it corresponds to my character. So it was only too natural that I turned to ancient drama, first as a lover of the art genre, then as a composer. I began to write theatre and film music for ancient tragedies, finally arriving at Lyric Tragedy, that is, my operas.
Renato Zanella discovered for himself the music of my Lyric Tragedy "Medea", and it became the basis of his ballet choreography of the same name. And then Asteris Kutulas comes along and creates a new work of art, which in turn is based on everything I have just mentioned. But he doesn't just film the ballet, he creates something completely new and thereby gives it a deeply social and political dimension.
Euripides' Medea screams - expressed in dance by Maria Kousouni and interpreted vocally by the voice of Emilia Titarenko - because betrayal of her drives her to the most terrible crime there can be: the slaughter of her own children.
Today's Greece is screaming infernally in the squares and in the streets because it is also being driven to the most terrible crime: to kill the future of its own children.
I think we are dealing here with a true work of art that calls on us to take responsibility. A work that is at the same time a hymn for the struggle of people and nations for their independence and freedom. (Mikis Theodorakis)
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CREDITS | Music by Mikis Theodorakis | Choreography by Renato Zanella | Cinematography by Mike Geranios | Editing by Babette Rosenbaum & Asteris Kutulas | Art Direction by Achilleas Gatsopoulos | Music Production, Editing & Mastering by Alexandros Karozas | Scenography by Georgios Kolios | Co-Produced by Schott Music & Klaus Salge | Written & Produced by Ina & Asteris Kutulas | Created & Directed by Asteris Kutulas
MUSIC CREDITS of "Medea" (Opera in two acts, dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi) | Composed by Mikis Theodorakis | Text by Euripides | Published by Schott Music | CD Published on WERGO | Recorded digitally at the Capella Concert Hall St. Petersburg by Gerhard Tsess and Alexandros Karozas | Music Edited by Mikis Theodorakis and Alexandros Karozas | Emilia Titarenko (Medea) | Nikolai Ostrofsky (Jason) | Peter Migounov (Aegeus) | Wladimir Feljaer (Creon) | Irina Liogkaja (Nurse) | Eugeni Witshnewski (Messenger) | Daria Rybakova (Coryphaea) | Juri Worobiow (Paedagogus) | St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Orchestra & Choir | Conducted by Mikis Theodorakis
BALLET CREDITS | Choreography by Renato Zanella | Maria Kousouni as Medea | Danilo Zeka as Jason | Franziska Hollinek-Wallner as Glauce | Eno Peci as Aegeus | Sofia Pintzou as Coryphaea | Nicky Vanoppen as Creon | Lighting Design by Vinicio Cheli | Assistant Choreographer by Alessandra Pasquali | Chorus Choreographer Angeliki Sigourou | Musical Assistant Jiri Novak | Akropoditi Dance Theater | Anna Vaptisma, Pigi Lobotesi, Maria Mavri, Filia Milidaki, Anna Ouzounidou, Eleni Pagkalia, Nadia Palaiologou, Adamantia Papandreou, Vivi Sklia, Georgia Stamatopoulou, Antigone Choundri
Ballet performances filmed at the "Apollo" Theater of Hermoupolis (Syros) | International Festival of the Aegean | Presented by MidAmerica Productions of New York and the Municipality of Syros-Hermoupolis | General & Artistic Director Peter Tiboris | Festival Production Coordinator Dimitris Yolassis | Stage Manager Lena Chatzigrigoriou
FILM CREDITS | Featuring Bella Oelmann | Special guest André Hennicke | Guest Appearance Nicolaus Kausch | Sandra von Ruffin | Cyra and Kyra | Music Remixing & Editing, Mastering by Alexandros Karozas | Sound Recording by Klaus Salge | Sound Editing by Sebo Lilge | Graphic Design by Frank Wonneberg | Motion Graphics by Dominik Kokocinski | Colorist Antonia Gogin | Online Editor Neil Reynolds | Assistent Online Editor Felix Bester | Casting Director & Assistant Film Director Marcia Tzivara | Gaffer Vassilis Dimitriadis | Make Up Artist Saretta Rosa | Second camera (ballet) & additional photography by Asteris Kutulas | Additional Photography by Stefanos Vidalis, VROST, Lefteris Eleftheriadis, Ioannis Myronidis, Vasilis Nousis, Zafeiris Haitidis, James Chryssanthes (ASC) | Text Design by Tino Deus | Translations by Sonja Commentz (English), Ina Kutulas (German), Elinoar Moav (Hebrew), Theo Votsos (Greek), Cécile Marcoux and Anna Turne (French)
Artistic Consultancy by Klaus Salge | Cinematography by Mike Geranios | Editors Babette Rosenbaum & Asteris Kutulas | Art Director Achilleas Gatsopoulos Production | Coordination in Greece by Dimitris Koutoulas | Executive Producer Brigit Mulders | Co-Produced by Schott Music & Klaus Salge | Written & produced by Ina & Asteris Kutulas | Directed by Asteris Kutulas
Music Edition by Schott Music
Special thanks to Peter Hanser-Strecker, Margarita Theodorakis & Rena Parmenidou, Thorsten Schaumann, James Chressanthis, Rafaela Wilde, George Dalaras, Tim Dowdall, Alexandros Karozas, Alexander Koutoulas, Jörg Krause, Lefteris Veniadis, Andreas Walter, Paris Konstantinidis, Jannis Zotos, Brigit Mulders, Nikos Vlachakis, Anita & Uwe Förster, Jan Perray, Dimitris Koutoulas, Sofia Stavrianidou | Hof International Film Festival, Schott Music & the Strecker Foundation