Constantine Koukias
Since 2010 Constantine Koukias has been the creative director of Foundation IHOS Amsterdam and was the Artistic Director and CEO of IHOS Music Theatre & Opera for 23 years in Australia. Constantine’s avant-garde approach to the presentation of opera has resulted in hybrid productions such as Days and Nights with Christ, To Traverse Water, MIKROVION (Small Life – 36 Images in a Phantom Flux of Life), The Divine Kiss, and Tesla – Lightning in His Hand. His most recent large-scale work, The Barbarians, was inspired by Constantine Cavafy’s famous poem “Waiting for the Barbarians” and commissioned by the Museum of Old and New Art.
His works range from large-scale music-theatre and opera to mobile installation-art events. His compositions have earned acclaim as being remarkable for their mesmerising, atmospheric qualities created by accompanying temporal and spatial production designs. In his recent works, exotic flavours have been introduced through Eastern timbres and melody-design. In 1993, he was commissioned by the Sydney Opera House Trust to compose ICON, a large-scale music-theatre piece, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House. Additional music-theatre works include Kimisis – Falling Asleep, Borders, Orfeo, Rapture – Sonic Taxi Performance, Schwa – The Neutral Vowel, Antigone, and The Da Ponte Project. Prayer Bells, which draws on traditions of Latin, Hebrew, and Byzantine chant, had its USA premiere at the Chicago Cultural Centre. In 2004, he was awarded a Sir Winston Churchill Fellowship. His Incantation II for soprano and digital delay won the International Valentino Bucchi Vocal Prize in Rome in 1997. His design credits include the internationally acclaimed Odyssey and Medea. He is currently composing a concerto for Ondes Martentot and chamber orchestra for Nadia Ratsimandresy and the film opera Shaped by Trees with librettist Biasino Pezzimenti.
The Barbarians (excerpts)
Warning: This film is only suitable for a mature audience as it contains male nudity and simulated violence.
Excerpts from the IHOS Opera "The Barbarians", filmed at it's world premiere as part of the 2012 Mona Foma festival, Hobart, Tasmania.
A Prayer at Lamplighting
for piano and electronics.
Gabriella Smart, piano