1960, ORIGINAL, Theater Program, Festival Athinon, Maria Callas, Tsarouchis, Bachauer, Theodorakis, Minotis

The Athens and Epidaurus Festival is the city’s annual arts festival and a highlight of the Greek summer calendar. With a legacy that spans more than sixty years, it incorporates a full programme of music, theatre, dance and visual arts.

Three years after the concert at the Conservatory of Herodes of Atticus, Callas accepted to star as Norma in the first production of an opera in the ancient theater of Epidaurus by the National Opera, whose director was the publisher and journalist Kostis Bastias; this fact contributed to the acceptance of the proposal by Callas as in 1941, during his first term, Bastias had secured for Callas a fixed salary from the National Opera and the role of Beatrice in Franz von Suppe’s Boccaccio, inaugurating, thus, her career in opera. In fact, in return for Bastias’ help in the early phase of her career, Callas agreed to donate her fee to the institution of the Maria Callas Scholarships, with the aim of highlighting and supporting emerging talented artists.