I was always a fan of thematic Concerts since music from diverse composers and works interconect into a single complete whole.
Such a Concert or rather a mise en espace presentation with costumes and basic props, was presented at the “Alternative Stage” of the Greek National Opera at the S.N.F.C.C. (Stavros Niarhos Foundation Cultural Center) with the famous Greek contralto Marita Paparizou.
The main theme of the concert was the word ETHOS which is comprised by the operatic Characters of Hercules, Theseus and Odysseus, the last word being “Synergy”. The music was carefully chosen so that it presented to the audience an array of human emotions, love, hate, anger, jealousy, through arias selected from operas of Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Haendel, Rameau and Gluck, with the interpolation of the famous “Chaos” by Rebel masterfully executed by the Novarte Ensemble under the direction of Maurizio Colasanti who’s musical assistance and orchestra coach was Alexandros Paparizos.
It was a real tour de force of Marita Paparizou who sang some of the most difficult and virtuosic arias in a manner which in my opinion should be used by singers of the Baroque repertoire. Her brilliant voice executed every small nuance of the emotions contained in each aria, with a dramatic force which we rarely witness in baroque music performances. Not only did she proved to be an accomplished singer, master of her craft, but also a real tragedienne, an accomplished actress, using her voice and body in order to express both vocally and bodily each aria and its deeper meaning.
She proved that baroque music is not a museum piece music, but is full of extreme emotions which lead the heroes to extremities. The real tour de force and the dramatic culmination of the evening was the final piece, the Second Act scene and aria of Circe from Gluck’s “Telemaco” a role she has sung in London with the English Bach Festival and in Greece in the Odeon of Herodes Atticus also with the English Bach Festival substituting for Della Jones. 
This vocally and theatrically demanding scene with Circe and the Chorus (the excellent Filii Notas chorus under the direction of Maria Bazou), was the real highlight of the evening.
With Marita Paparizou another excellent singer Rosa Cappon Poulimenou participated in the concert with an aria by Rameau which she sung with great feeling and flair. Her singing is always attentive to the minimal details of the score, immaculately sung.
One has to mention the Filii Notas Chorus, singing with great feeling the 2nd Act Chorus from Handel’s “Hercules” as well as the finale we mentioned earlier.
Maurizio Colasanti directed with a strong hand the Orchestra revealing and underlying every nuance of the score.
All this worked to perfection due to the direction of Giorgos Ahladiotis and Fotini Papathanasiou who achieved miracles with the minimal means they had at their disposal.
The movement and dramatic direction revealed the ability to create a unique atmosphere with minimal props, by cleverly using fabrics and masks along with video projections and lighting, and all of this with very few rehearsals.
All in all it was a memorable evening in which the collective Artistry of all involved gave the best results both musically as well as theatrically, not to mention the fact that we were lucky enough the hear for the first time music from unknown operas, a fact that is after all always present in all of Marita Paparizou’s Concerts.