Madre Salonico

About

Madre Salonico is a new music-theatre production presented by the Greek National Opera Alternative Stage. Leon A. Nar provides the text and Victor Arditti directs. The performance combines Ladino, described as the Spanish-Hebrew language of Sephardic communities, with Greek. It treats Ladino as a language at risk of disappearance and places it alongside Sephardic songs from Jewish communities around the Mediterranean. Martha Mavroidi adapts the Sephardic songs and provides the original music. The musical ensemble Smari supplies the instrumental forces, with Fotis Siotas also participating on violin and voice. Sets and costumes are by Maria Panourgia, lighting by Melina Mascha, video by Marios Gampierakis, and Anna-Maria Iakovou is assistant director. The staging connects the present with the past through language, song and intergenerational memory, focusing on the Jewish history of Thessaloniki and its relationship to the city’s collective memory.