Golden Age

Lead Donor of the GNO

For a second consecutive year, the Greek National Opera is travelling to Thessaloniki to participate in the 60th Dimitria Festival – the city’s most historic cultural event – with remarkably successful productions. As part of the GNO’s programme agreement with the Ministry of Culture and other Thessaloniki institutions, five opera, dance, music theatre, and musical productions will be presented there in October 2025, offering a diverse and high-quality artistic programme for all ages.

The GNO Ballet is visiting Thessaloniki to present the highly successful production Golden Age, created by Konstantinos Rigos, at the Theatre of the Society for Macedonian Studies of the National Theatre of Northern Greece on 10, 11, and 12 October, as part of the 60^th Dimitria Festival.

Golden Age is a co-production between the GNO and the Belgrade Dance Festival, where it received its world premiere. This co-production is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

Golden Age is an explosive performance about the present and future of dance, while also serving as a reflection of a mixtape of Rigos’ 35-year-long career, where the concepts of irony and nostalgia seem to be identical. From his time at the National School of Dance (KSOT), the spring of Greek dance in the 1990s, and the Dance Theatre Company OKTANA, to his work at the Art Theatre, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the National Theatre of Greece, the Athens Festival, and the Greek National Opera, Konstantinos Rigos’ iconoclastic imprint transcends the boundaries of dance and converses with the art forms surrounding it. His artistic identity remains restless, subversive, provocative, sharp-edged, and brimming with emotions.

With Golden Age, Konstantinos Rigos introduces dance theatre vocabulary into the Greek National Opera Ballet, creating a new piece about the future of dance, through a striking blend of highlights that have marked his 35-year-long journey, while also incorporating new materials and present-day influences. Highlights featuring old materials viewed through a modern lens, moments that tell of times gone by, and their projection onto the future. Through golden reflections, vertical screens, mottos, and a grand chandelier created by visual artist Petros Touloudis, the dance performance Golden Age signs the declaration of a new faith that places its beliefs not in God but in humans, not “in the heavens” but “on earth” – a declaration that, although it may not promise salvation, does ensure an exit from hell.