CONDUCTOR
Dimitris Kountouras

STAND-UP COMEDIAN
Dimitris Dimopoulos

31 March 2017
1 April 2017
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

Starts at: 20.30 |

DIRECTOR-TABLEAUX VIVANTS
Teatri 35 (Gaetano Coccia, Francesco O. De Santis, Antonella Parrella)

LIGHTING
Gennaro Maria Cedrangolo

29, 30 March 2017
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

Starts at: 20.30 |

CONDUCTOR-IDEA
Markellos Chryssicos

DIRECTOR
Katerina Evangelatos

SETS-COSTUMES
Eva Manidaki

LIGHTING
Eleftheria Deco

23, 24 March 2017
Greek National Opera Alternative Stage
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

Starts at: 20.30 |

CONDUCTORS
Anastasios Symeonidis (18, 19, 24/2 & 3, 5/3)
Zoe Tsokanou (22, 25, 26/2)

DIRECTOR
Francesco Micheli

REVIVAL DIRECTOR
Marina Mergou

SET DESIGNS – LIGHTING
Nicolas Bovey

COSTUMES
Gianluca Falaschi

VISUAL DESIGN
Panagiotis Tomaras

CHORUS MASTER
Agathangelos Georgakato

Co-production with the Bologna Municipal Theatre [Teatro Comunale di Bologna]

18, 19, 22, 24, 25, 26 February 2017
3, 5 March 2017
Olympia Theatre
At 20:00 |

CONDUCTOR
Myron Michailidis

STAGING-SETS-COSTUMES
Antony McDonald

LIGHTING
Lucy Carter

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR
Philippe Giraudeau

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Helen Cooper

ASSOCIATE MOVEMENT DIRECTOR
Lizie Saunderson

ASSOCIATE LIGHTING DESIGNER
Neill Brinkworth

CHORUS MASTER
Agathangelos Georgakatos

A new GNO production originated at the Welsh National Opera and Theatr Wielki – Polish National Opera

27, 29 January 2017
1, 3, 5 February 2017
Athens Concert Hall
At 18:30 |

CHORUS MISTRESS
Mata Katsouli

5 January 2017
GREEK NATIONAL OPERA'S MAIN STAGE - 'STAVROS NIARCHOS' HALL
STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION CULTURAL CENTER
Starts at: 20.00 |
Admission is free

CONDUCTORS
Elias Voudouris (16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 28, 29/12)
Zoe Zeniodi (30, 31/12)

CHOREOGRAPHY
Irek Mukhamedov
Marius Petipa

MUSIC
Adolphe Adam, with added music by Friedrich Burgmüller and Boris Assafyev

SET DESIGN – COSTUMES
Charles Cusick Smith
Philip P. Daniels

LIGHTING
Eleftheria Deco

16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31 December 2016
Olympia Theatre
At 20:00 |   (31/12 at 19:00 | )

28 December 2016
GNO MAIN STAGE FOYER - SNFCC
Starts at: 20.00 |
Admission is free

CONDUCTOR
Lukas Karytinos

STAGE DIRECTIONS - SETS - COSTUMES - LIGHTING
Nikos S. Petropoulos

REVIVAL DIRECTOR
Ion Kessoulis

CHOREOGRAPHY - MOVEMENT
Fotis Diamantopoulos

CHORUS MASTER
Agathangelos Georgakatos

19, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27, 30 November 2016
Megaron, The Athens Concert Hall - Alexandra Trianti Hall
Starts at 20:00 |

MUSIC
György Ligeti
Jannis Xenakis
Julien Tarride

CONCEPT - CHOREOGRAPHY - STAGE DIRECTION
Antonis Foniadakis - APOTOSOMA

SET DESIGN - LIGHTING
Sakis Birbilis

COSTUMES
Antonis Foniadakis

SOUND DESIGN - VIDEO DESIGN
Julien Tarride

ASSOCIATE DRAMATIST
Eri Kyrgia

Dance theatre - A co-production with the National Theatre of Greece

3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27 November 2016
Rex Theatre, Marika Kotopouli – National Theatre

At 20:00 | (19:00 | on Sundays)

CONDUCTOR
Elias Voudouris

STAGE DIRECTIONS - SETS - COSTUMES - LIGHTING
Nikos S. Petropoulos

26 November 2016
Theatres / Cultural Venues in Greek cities
Starts at: 20.00 |
Admission is free

Screenings of GNO's performance of La Traviata in 13 cities:

Aigio - ‘Apollo’ Municipal Cinema
Veria - ‘Star’ Cinema and Theatre Hall
Heraklion - Cultural and Conference Center (‘Mikro Theatro’)
Ioannina - Cultural Multiplex 'Dimitris Hatzis'
Kos - ‘Orpheus’ Cinema and Theatre Hall
Mesolongi - ‘Trikoupeio’ Cultural Center
Preveza - 'Oasi' Cultural Center
Serres - ‘Asteria’ Municipal Theatre
Syros - ‘Apollo’ Theatre
Trikala - ‘Matsopoulou Mill’ Arts & Culture Venue
Tripoli - 'Malliaropouleio' Theatre
Florina - Cultural Center (‘Theodoros Angelopoulos’ Hall)
Chios - ‘Homerion’ Cultural Center

CONDUCTOR
Giorgos Aravidis (21, 22, 23, 26/10)
Andreas Pylarinos (30/10, 2, 6/11)

DIRECTOR
Simos Kakalas

SET DESIGN
Antonis Daglidis

COSTUME DESIGN
Clare Bracewell

LIGHTING
Periklis Mathielis

PROJECTORS
Stathis Mitsios

CHOREOGRAPHY – MOVEMENT
Irina Akrioti
Kolioubakina

CHOIRMASTER
Agathangelos Georgakatos

21, 22, 23, 26, 30 October 2016
2, 6 November 2016
Olympia Theatre
At 20:00 |

30 September 2016
Olympia Theatre
Starts at 20.00 |

Proceeds from the recital will be donated to the Association for the Building of the Opera House and the Academy of the Lyric Art "Maria Callas" for the purposes of the Lyric Art Academy "Maria Callas".

25 September 2016
Olympia Theatre foyer
The concert will be held at 11:00 | and again at 13:00 |
Free Entry with coupon, available on a first-come-first-served basis from the Olympia Theatre box office one hour before doors open.

CONDUCTOR
Elias Voudouris

CHORUS MASTER
Agathangelos Georgakatos

CHILDREN’S CHOIR CONDUCTOR
Mata Katsouli

25 September 2016
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center
Starts at 20.00 |
Free entrance

ANIMATION
Eirini Vianelli

DIRECTOR
Angela Saroglou

COSTUMES
Yannis Katranitsas

PIANO
Sofia Tamvakopoulou

A mixture of opera and animation
Co-produced by Greek National Opera and Animasyros Festival

22 September 2016
Apollo Theatre, Hermoupolis Syros
Starts at 21:00 |
Free entry

CARMEN
Rinat Shaham (24, 26/7)
Géraldine Chauvet (27, 29/7)

DON JOSÉ
Leonardo Capalbo (24, 26/7)
Dimitris Paksoglou (27, 29/7)

ESCAMILLO
Dionyssis Sourbis (24, 26/7)
Omar Kamata (27, 29/7)

MICAËLA
Saioa Hernández (24, 26/7)
Anna Stylianaki (27, 29/7)

ZUNIGA
Petros Magoulas

MORALÈS
Nikos Kotenidis

FRASQUITA
Maria Mitsopoulou (24, 26/7)
Maria Kokka (27, 29/7)

MERCÉDÈS
Eleni Davou (24, 26/7)
Diamanti Kritsotaki (27, 29/7)

DANCAÏRE
Kostis Rasidakis (24, 26/7)
Yannis Selitsaniotis (27, 29/7)

REMENDADO
Alexandros Tsilogiannis (24, 26/7)
Christos Kechris (27, 29/7)

Ballet

WOMEN
Cleopatra Anerousou
Athina Vrouva
Eleni Kladou
Eleftheria Stamou

MEN
Fotis Diamantopoulos
Blendi Latifi
Petros Kouroupakis
Esmeraldo Bitro
Ilir Sipri

DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Bizet’s Andalucia is invented, fictional, but it reflects our world. Grinding poverty is daily reality for many millions of people, and the opera Carmen gives voice to those people. This was a radical step in the history of opera, which had traditionally restricted working or poor people to comedy, reserving tragedy for Gods and Nobility. It remains radical today. Carmen respects the humanity of the poor, and gives them passionate, beautiful, sexy, celebratory, and tragic music. There is death, and despair, but there are parties, and dances and fun too: passion and humor are not the preserves of the wealthy. The people in this invented world exist on the margins of society, the desperate edge. They scrape together a living through hard work, or crime, the sex trade, smuggling, whatever comes to hand. They laugh, they cheat, they bribe, they fight, they love; they feel guilt, pride, hope, fear… And somehow, because there is no safety net, all these emotions are heightened, even purified. As is well known, Carmen, the woman, is a Romani, a gypsy, a traveller – dangerously foreign and exotic. The Roma culture is borderless, at least in spirit and intention, even if interaction with National burocracy and fixed-place cultures sometimes causes difficulty and friction. Carmen exemplifies this sense of radical freedom. Men find her absurdly, impossibly attractive. But she is more than an object of desire. She is a real person. Her background seems chaotic, unstable, impoverished. But like everyone else she must eat, she must earn money. Why else would she work in a sweatshop factory doing degrading work? We love Carmen for her verve, for her nerve; for her refusal to compromise with life or love; above all for her insistence on her right to absolute personal freedom and her fearlessness in the face of death.
Borders and poverty, freedom and captivity. There could hardly be more relevant topics. Carmen is a story for now.

Stephen Langridge, 6 June 2015

Carmen at a glance

The composer / French composer Georges Bizet was born in Paris in 1838 and died in Bougival, near the French capital, in 1875. His first music instructor was his own father, a singing teacher. Later, at the Paris Conservatory he was a pupil of Jacques Fromental Halévy, composer of La Juive, whose daughter he went on to marry in 1869. He also studied with Charles Gounod, who deeply influenced the younger composer’s oeuvre. By 1857, when Bizet received the much-coveted Prix de Rome, he had already composed his Symphony in C, though it was not performed until as late as 1935. When he returned from the Villa Medici to Paris, his highest priority was to do something about his pitiable finances. His opera Les pêcheurs de perles (1863) was not the success he had expected. After the Franco-Prussian War (1870) he was appointed chorusmaster of the Theatre National de l' Opéra, but he instead chose to take a position as chef de chant at the Opéra-Comique. His first widely successful composition was the music for the play based on the novel L’Arlésienne by Alphonse Daudet. Bizet was there to experience the turbulent premiere of Carmen in March 1875, but not to see it blossom into a resounding success, for he died a few months later at the age of 36.

The opera / Carmen was written to a libretto by Henri Meilhac (1831-1897) and Ludovic Halévy (1834-1908) after Prosper Merimée’s (1803-1870) novel of the same title (1845). While the term "opera comique" suggests comical elements, it in fact refers to structural and aesthetic characteristics, one of which is prose dialogues. In 1875 Ernest Guiraud (1837-1892) replaced the prose with recitatives for the Vienna performance of the opera. He also added ballet music borrowed from L’Arlésienne Suite and another opera by Bizet, La jolie fille de Perth. Carmen was originally planned in three acts, while later the two scenes of Act III were divided into Acts III and IV. The opera recounts the story of Corporal Don José, who finds himself madly in love with the Gipsy girl Carmen. Tired of his love she finally tells him that she doesn’t love him any longer. In despair, Don José kills her.

Premieres / Carmen was first performed in Paris at the Salle Favart by the ensemble of the Opéra-Comique on 3 March 1875. The title role was performed by Celestine Galli-Marié, but the production that established the opera firmly was held in Vienna in October 1875. In Greece, one of the first recorded performances of the opera was held at the Municipal Theatre of Patras during the 1900/1 season. The Greek National Opera added the opera to its repertory in the 1941/2 season, with Kitsa Damasioti as Carmen. The production was conducted by Antiochos Evangelatos.

Choreography
Andonis Foniadakis
APOTOSOMA

Μusic
J.S.Bach
G.F. Händel
J. Tarride

Sets diligence
Andonis Foniadakis
APOTOSOMA & Sakis Birbilis

Costumes
Tassos Sofroniou

Lighting
Sakis Birbilis

Sound design
Julien Tarride

Kalamata International Dance Festival

15, 16 July 2016
Dance Megaron, Main Hall
Starts at 22.00 |

3 July 2016
Visitors' Center of the SNFCC
Starts at 20.30 |
Free admission

1, 2 July 2016
Olympia Theatre
Starts at 20.00 |
Free entrance

CONDUCTOR
Vladimiros Symeonidis

DIRECTOR
Alexandros Efklidis

ART INSTALLATION
Alexandros Psychoulis

LIGHTING
George Tellos  

25 June 2016
The performances start at:
The Pianist 18.30 | & 19.15 | & 00.00 |
Strychnine Lady 20.30 | & 00.30 |
Free admission 

21 June 2016
Veranda of the 4th floor of the EMST
Starts at 21.30 |
Free admission

CONDUCTOR
Myron Michailidis (10,11/6)
Elias Voudouris (12,15/6)

DIRECTOR
Enrico Castiglione

SET - VIDEO - LIGHTING
Enrico Castiglione

COSTUMES
Sonia Cammarata

CHOREOGRAPHY
Fotis Diamantopoulos

CHORUS MASTER
Agathangelos Georgakatos

10, 11, 12, 15 June 2016
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
New production originating from the Taormina Opera Festival
Within the framework of the Athens Festival
Starts at 21.00 |

Aida at a glance
Giuseppe Verdi

Αida

Οpera in four acts

Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario by Auguste Mariette

World premiere Cairo Opera House, 24 December 1871
Greek National Opera premiere Olympia Theatre, 8 January 1958

The composer / Giuseppe Verdi, the most celebrated composer of Italian romanticism, was born in the village of Le Roncole in northern Italy in 1813, and died in Milan in 1901. He studied music in the small town of Busseto and then in Milan. His earliest works were influenced by the revolutionary spirit of the times, echoing the struggle of small Italian states to be liberated from the Austrians and unified into one dominant country. Verdi’s involvement with politics elevated the composer to the status of a national symbol (as an acrostic, ‘Viva Verdi’ meant ‘Viva, Vittorio Emanuele, Re d’Italia’), and in 1861 he was elected a member of the first Italian Parliament. His most significant operas include Nabucco (1842), Ernani (1844), Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853), La traviata (1853), La forza del destino (1862), Don Carlos (1867, 1884), Aida (1871), Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893).
In terms of aesthetics, Verdi’s music expressed the spirit of ripe romanticism, while on a political level it expressed his compatriots’ desire to see Italy free and united. He had the good fortune to be loved by an especially broad section of the public and to enjoy a popularity that remains unfaltering to this day. Verdi was the composer who experienced that special moment in the history of music when high art became popular during the historical, political and social changes of the 19th century.

The opera / Aida is an opera in four acts to a libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, which was based on a scenario by Auguste Mariette. The opera is set in the age of the pharaohs. Aida, daughter of the king of Ethiopia, is held as a slave in Egypt, where she has fallen in love with Radamès, commander of the Egyptian army. Her rival for the warrior’s heart is her mistress, Amneris, daughter of the Egyptian king. In accordance to her father’s wishes, Aida manages to extract information about the Egyptian army’s strategy from Radamès. Radamès is charged with treason and condemned by the council of priests to death. Even Amneris’ pleas for his life cannot save him. Aida hides in the underground vault of the temple of Vulcan where Radamès is going to be entombed alive so that she may die beside him.

Premieres / Aida received its premiere at the Cairo Opera House on 24 December 1871 in a production conducted by composer and double bass player Giovanni Bottesini. The cast was led by Antonietta Pozzoni-Anastasi (Aida), Eleonora Grossi (Amneris), Pietro Mongini (Radamès) and Francesco Steller (Amonasro). The European premiere was held on 8 February 1872 at La Scala, Milan, and Verdi then made several changes to the score. This production was conducted by Franco Faccio, while the cast included Teresa Stolz as Aida, Maria Waldmann as Amneris, Giuseppe Fancelli as Radamès and Francesco Pandolfini as Amonasro.
There are references to an 1882 performance in Athens in Italian, while the first Olympia Theatre was inaugurated in April 1916 with Verdi’s Ernani and featured Aida during its first season. There was another run of performances a few months later at the Panathenaic Stadium under the baton of Belgian composer, violinist and conductor Armand Marsick, at the time living and working in Greece.
Aida was first staged by the Greek National Opera (founded in 1940) on 8 January 1958, during the inaugural season of the present-day Olympia Theatre. The production was conducted by Andreas ParidiS. The leading role was sung by Rena Kanaki, Radamès by Angelo Lo Forese (or Loforese) and Amneris by Franca Sacchi.

Director's note

"The production of Aida I will present at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, has first been presented at the ancient theatre of Taormina, a rare gem, like the Herodes Atticus Odeon one of the most famous Greco-roman theatres of the Mediterranean. To produce once again a production which has already met with great success, like my first Aida, is always a stimulating challenge, difficult to repeat or to surpass, especially if one is to give a new perspective, to produce new solutions and create new emotions.
Aida is about passion, about drama, about power struggle, about magnificence, but it is also a «chamber opera» as Giuseppe Verdi himself liked to call it. It is an opera with a double soul, an intimate one, represented by the secret love story between Aida and Radamès with whom Amneris is also in love, and an extrovert one, represented by the grandeur of the Egyptian civilization, magnificently expressed by Verdi in Act II and especially in the «triumph» scene. Expressing these two sides is no easy task, even more so since Aida is one of the most produced operas, loved all over the world.
The principal problem in producing in a Greco-Roman theatre a work so strongly linked to the Egyptian civilization, is how to «host» ancient Egypt of the Pharaonic times in a theatre that has no relation to this civilization, in order to set the work in the time of the Pharaohs and achieve the maximum Egyptian splendor.
I have thus created a great pyramid, a symbol of ancient Egypt, which embraces the whole stage, a flattened pyramid on which all four acts of Verdi’s opera unfold. But this was not enough in order to render ancient Egypt with all its colors and in all its magnificence. So I have conceived a design which apart from the flattened pyramid is completed by a «coating» of the complete interior of the theatre with colors, forms, structures and symbols of Ancient Egypt. This has been made possible thanks to high definition projections of a series of images, which have the power to «transform» the ruins of the theatre into exceptional Egyptian environments.
The projections have been designed to match exactly the structure of the theatre, its columns, its niches, its curves. So, instead of simple images projected in casual manner on a part of the theatre, these projections transform a Greco-roman column into an Egyptian one, reconstructing an transforming Greco-roman walls into the walls of the Pharaohs imperial palace or to the chambers of Amneris, but also transforming the interior of the theatre in a long row of palm trees on the banks of the Nile.
I still recall the emotions of many spectators who found themselves unexpectedly plunged into the Nile, or in the imperial palace of the Pharaoh, because through the use of high definition projection technology the ancient theatre has been transformed into ancient Egypt. An I recall the amazement of those who wondered how I had mounted Egyptian columns in the Greek-roman theater.
Well, these same emotions, even more intense and stronger, I hope bring to the spectators at the Herodes Atticus Odeon, where the flattened pyramid on which the entire action takes place, completed by projections in high definition, will transform the entire Odeon into ancient Egypt, and more specifically in the environments of Verdi’s Aida, transforming the niches, the columns, the existing windows into Egyptian rather than ancient Greek style, hoping to give to the viewer a spectacular effect of high-impact.
The costumes by Sonia Cammarata, recreating with unanimously recognized imaginative flair the attires of Ancient Egypt, are also part of the whole scenario. These include the refined dresses of Aida and Amneris and the strongly communicative costumes of the King and of Amonasro as well as an extraordinary assortment of collars made with the mosaic technique, with thousands of colorful glass pieces shining spectacularly.
In this absolutely Egyptian scenario, the opera characters move with great agility, living their passions and their desires, their dramas and their dreams on the symbol par excellence of Ancient Egypt, the pyramid; a pyramid that in Act II houses the glory of the triumph and in Act IV reveals the intimacy of the tomb.
I have tried to highlight the love story of Aida and Radamès since Aida’s first appearance, when in Act I she comes across Amneris in the presence of Radamès. A love between the slave Aida and warrior Radamès, which leads both to death, a poignant death that finds them embraced in the shadows of the tomb under the altar of Amneris".

Enrico Castiglione

5 June 2016
SNFCC Visitors Center
Starts at 19.00 |
Admission is free

5 June 2016
SNFCC Visitors Center
Starts at 11.00 |
Admission is free

DIRECTOR
Isidoros Sideris

SETS/ COSTUMES
Yiannis Katranitsas

LIGHTING
Costas Blougouras

MUSIC PREPARATION AND ACCOMPANIMENT
Frixos Mortzos

MOVEMENT - CHOREOGRAPHY
Dionyssis Tsaftaridis

29 May 2016
Municipality of Acharnes
"Mikis Theodorakis" Theatre
Starts at 21.00 |

28 May 2016
SNFCC Visitors Center
Starts at 10.00 and 12.30 |
Admission is free

DIRECTOR
Isidoros Sideris

SETS/ COSTUMES
Yiannis Katranitsas

LIGHTING
Costas Blougouras

MUSIC PREPARATION AND ACCOMPANIMENT
Frixos Mortzos

MOVEMENT - CHOREOGRAPHY
Dionyssis Tsaftaridis

27 May 2016
Municipality of Eleusis
Old Oil Factory
Starts at 21.00 |

DIRECTOR
Isidoros Sideris

SETS/ COSTUMES
Yiannis Katranitsas

LIGHTING
Costas Blougouras

MUSIC PREPARATION AND ACCOMPANIMENT
Frixos Mortzos

MOVEMENT - CHOREOGRAPHY
Dionyssis Tsaftaridis

25 May 2016
Municipality of Lycovrissi- Pefki
Municipal Theatre of Pefki
Starts at 20.00 |

22 May 2016
Starts at: 12.00 | (noon)
Free admission