À Paris tous les deux

Lead Donor of the GNO

The Greek National Opera joins the 61st Dimitria Festival, Thessaloniki's largest and most historic cultural event, scheduled for 1 to 26 October 2026. The GNO will present a diverse programme ranging from opera and melodrama to shadow puppet opera and a cine-opera pastiche at the Royal Theatre and the Ceremony Hall of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, offering audiences the opportunity to discover and enjoy rare works, new productions, and highly successful performances. The GNO’s participation in the 61st Dimitria Festival’s programme is part of a Framework Agreement between the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Thessaloniki institutions.

The production was made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the GNO’s artistic outreach.

The Greek National Opera’s cine-opera pastiche À Paris tous les deux invites audiences to explore the art of opera while paying homage to popular operas set in Paris. Five tales of love and death from La traviata, La bohème, Manon, Louise,  and Il tabarro form a modular silent film, presented with live piano accompaniment. The excerpts from Verdi, Puccini, Massenet, Charpentier, and Offenbach’s operas are performed by sopranos Chrissa Maliamani and Anna Stylianaki, and tenor Manos Kokkonis. Accompanying them on the piano is Marilena Souri.

Fanny Ardant, the prominent French actress closely associated with cinematic Paris and opera, both as a director and as the actress who portrayed Maria Callas in Zeffirelli’s film Callas Forever and in Terrence McNally's play Master Class, makes a pro bono cameo in the film in a surprise role. The production stars emerging Greek and French actors and dancers.

À Paris tous les deux invites us to discover the operatic soundtrack of Paris – the musical mark of a city adored by these renowned composers, a city that became part of major operatic romances.