GNO Alternative Stage: Artistic programme 2025/26

The Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera announces its diverse and groundbreaking programme for the 2025/26 season. Counting eight years of daring presence, the most restless and vibrant voice in contemporary music theatre in Greece has prepared a grand-scale/#epic programme with more than 30 productions, two festivals, tours across Greece, and participation in the 60^th Dimitria Festival.  Featuring numerous emerging and established artists, the GNO Alternative Stage invites you to a celebration of creativity, experimentation, and artistic cohabitation. Important international co-productions, collaborations with Greek art organizations, original and subversive productions of opera, music theatre, theatre, as well as musicals in Greek premiere, revivals of earlier successful productions, shadow puppet opera for the whole family, concerts, dance, and performance, as well as two festivals dedicated to Baroque music and percussion, all make up for an ambitious programme that expands the GNO Alternative Stage’s artistic vision. The founding donor and enduring supporter of the GNO Alternative Stage is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org]. 

The PPC, as a major donor, supports the Alternative Stage for the 2025/26 season. Firmly committed to enhancing cultural creation, it contributes to the realization of bold productions and events that foster contemporary artistic expression. The partnership between the PPC and the Alternative Stage is part of its strategy to support and promote culture as a means for sustainable development and social cohesion.

NEW OPERA PRODUCTIONS
Three original opera productions, fruits of the inspiration of prominent international and Greek creators, will be presented during the 2025/26 season at the GNO Alternative Stage. In the venue renowned for its exemplary acoustics, works with provocative and subversive themes that address contemporary concerns will be brought to life, boldly confronting opera with significant questions of our time.
– The GNO Alternative Stage will host the world premiere of a music-theatre adaptation of one of the most provocative novels of French literature, Rachilde’s daring and heretical Monsieur Vénus, in co-production with the Cadéëm company and the Centre Henri Pousseur (Belgium). This work will be transformed into an opera through the eyes of Alfredo Arias, an emblematic and pioneering figure in experimental theatre from Argentina, alongside the distinguished choreographer and director Diana Theocharidis, and in collaboration with the acclaimed composer Martin Matalon. The 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.
– The new hilarious opera production Viva la mamma! is set to present a highly subversive take on Gaetano Donizetti’s comic work Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Conventions and Inconveniences of the Stage), adapted and directed by Sophia Paschou, featuring a select cast of opera singers and actors.
 – Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno’s life, ideas, and martyrdom will be brought to life at the GNO Alternative Stage through the new opera production Η λέξη (The Word), with music by esteemed composer and maestro Alkis Baltas and a libretto by Eleni Zafeiriou, in Angela-Kleopatra Saroglou’s staging, and featuring the international Greek baritone Tassis Christoyannis in the leading role.

NEW MUSIC THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
Music theatre, one of the main pillars of the GNO Alternative Stage, is represented by three ambitious productions that will receive their Greek premiere. These works converse with Franz Kafka’s timeless universe and Antonio Vivaldi’s music, while also shedding light on highly topical questions of our time.
– Franz Kafka’s odd and poetic world intersects with light music theatre and the variété aesthetic in the new music theatre production Josephine the Singer or The Mouse Folk, featuring music by distinguished composer Kharálampos Goyós and stage direction by Savvas Stroumpos.
 –The famous independent performing arts company Novoflot, from Berlin, will return to the GNO Alternative Stage with its new production The 5th Season – Fat Tuesday, which is based on Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
– A poetic plea to save the planet, the work The Navel of the World, inspired by talented German author Fink Kleidheu, marks 35 years of continuous creativity by distinguished composer Kostas Papakostopoulos, founder and Artistic Director of the Deutsch Griechisches Theater in Cologne.

FROM MUSICAL TO SHADOW PUPPET OPERA
The GNO Alternative Stage’s programme is enriched with new productions of musicals, shadow puppet opera, theatre, concert revues, and dance, creating a multidimensional space for contemporary artistic expression.
– One of the most cherished and award-winning contemporary musicals, Tick, Tick… Boom! by the legendary Jonathan Larson, creator of the iconic rock musical Rent, is coming to Greece for the first time, staged by emerging director Emily Louizou, translated and adapted by Julia Diamantopoulou, and conducted by Michalis Papapetrou.
– Daring and prolific British writer Mark Ravenhill’s work Ben and Imo, inspired by the true story of composer Benjamin Britten’s passionate, friendly, and professional relationship with his colleague, composer Imogen Holst, will be presented in a production directed and translated by Giorgos Skevas.
– The new shadow puppet opera production for the whole family Karagiozis as Rigoletto is based on a text by comedian, director, and librettist Dimitris Dimopoulos, along with the experienced shadow puppeteer Alexandros Melissinos.
– The war revue Bravo Colonello will be performed in concert, conducted and arranged by Michalis Papapetrou, featuring the ERT Contemporary Music Orchestra.
– DAGIPOLI Dance Co., a distinct artistic hub in Greece consisting of individuals with physical impairments, celebrates twenty years of creative activity with a unique dance performance, conceived and choreographed by Jiorgos Christakis.

NEW CO-PRODUCTIONS
– The new performance nerό_una puta historia de AMOR directed by Anna Lemonaki and co-produced with the Swiss theatre group Bleu en Haut Bleu en Basm, is coming to the Alternative Stage immediately after its world premiere at the Comédie de Genève (January 2026).
– The visual-acoustic performance COEX, born from the creative collaboration between the contemporary music ensemble dissonArt ensemble and the Beetroot design group, will be presented in co-production with the latter.
– In co-production with the Municipal and Regional Theatre of Kavala, the GNO will showcase four productions of the 68th Philippi Festival: three will be held at alternative venues of the GNO, and the fourth will be performed at sea!

REVIVALS OF OPERAS AND OPERETTAS
Two successful productions will be revived at the GNO Alternative Stage during the 2025/26 season, reaffirming their impact, along with the audience’s warm response: the daring contemporary chamber opera Kassandra by the distinguished Argentinian composer Pablo Ortiz, written by the great Uruguayan dramaturg Sergio Blanco, and directed by Diana Theocharidis and Alexandros Efklidis – in co-production with the Centro de experimentación of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires – and the legendary operetta I Want to See the Pope! by Theophrastos Sakellaridis, conducted by Nicolas Vassiliou and directed by Natasha Triantafylli, featuring a glamourous cast of opera performers.

CONCERT PROGRAMME
The programme also includes: three unique concert programmes as part of the Composition Workshop Cycle of the Greek National Opera; the concert Prompters featuring music from the Baroque era, conceived, orchestrated, and conducted by Alexandros Gonis; the brass wind ensemble Gr Echo Brass Ensemble; the Greek-Dutch collaboration From the Baltic to the Mediterranean: A Choral Exchange, featuring the female choral ensemble CHÓRES and the National Youth Choir of the Netherlands; and the concerts Dimitris Platanias & Aenaon String Quartet and Always Flowing (Πάντα ρει) with Christina Panteli on the piano and pieces by Joseph Papadatos. The programme also features the famous Ensemble KNM Berlin, which will present a special project titled Crippled Symmetries: Motifs in Contemporary Music, as well as the French Ensemble Mêtis, which will perform a concert titled The Two Sides of the Atlantic: Poetry and Colour in Music.    

FESTIVALS
Two unique festivals that have won over music enthusiasts are making a vibrant comeback: the Baroque Music Festival, curated by Dimos Goudaroulis, will feature four special concerts under the general title The Age of Transitions. The third Percussion Festival of the GNO Alternative Stage, curated by Marinos Tranoudakis, will return in summer 2026 with its most ambitious edition, inviting audiences to a three-day, fascinating experience filled with sounds and explosive rhythms.

Finally, the GNO Alternative Stage will be visiting Thessaloniki to participate in the programme of the 60^th Dimitria Festival with three successful productions: the imaginative musical for the whole family Isadora Duck, written and directed by Stella Michailidou, featuring music by Kostas Vomvolos; the operetta I Want to See the Pope!; and the music theatre performance Madre Salonico, written by Leon A. Nar, and directed by Victor Ardittis, featuring Sephardic songs adapted by Martha Mavroidi.

The programme of the GNO Alternative Stage is curated by Alexandros Efklidis.

Below is an address from the outgoing Director of Artistic Programming of the Alternative Stage, Mr Alexandros Efklidis

Today’s announcement of the Alternative Stage’s artistic programming, the ninth I have signed as its head, concludes a very significant chapter in my artistic career. I began working for the Alternative Stage from the first moment Giorgos Koumendakis conceived the idea for it ten years ago, in 2015. We then envisioned a space dedicated to all forms of music theatre, a space designed to house, without any dogmatic or aesthetic restrictions or prejudices, all that potential that couldn’t find fertile ground in the otherwise rich Athenian artistic landscape. Ten years later, I can confidently say that those hopes have been realized, and the Alternative Stage has become a steady pillar of our country’s cultural scene. The hard work of all these years has borne fruit: the Alternative Stage team consists of select and highly skilled collaborators, with whom we have achieved a great deal. The time has now come for me to step down, as my responsibilities as Professor at the Department of Performing and Digital Arts at the University of the Peloponnese no longer allow me to dedicate the time and energy required for the role of the Head of the Alternative Stage.

I owe a big “thank you” to Giorgos Koumendakis, the man behind the inspiration for the Alternative Stage, who generously entrusted me with its artistic direction in 2017. Without his constant support, ideas, and advice, the Alternative Stage could never have stood on its own feet. Ten years after the conception of that crazy plan, I am proud to have successfully, as I would like to believe, served this idea of Giorgos.

The Founding Donor of the Alternative Stage, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, not only supported the first challenging years with successive grants from 2015 to 2021, but also consistently stood by the Alternative Stage’s efforts to establish its own artistic identity and presence. The success of the Alternative Stage, I believe, is a vindication of the SNF and its President, Andreas Dracopoulos’ visionary plan, as it has become one of the most vibrant hubs of this extensive project.

The Alternative Stage is more than a beautiful hall that has hosted hundreds of productions over the years and has been transformed many times, showcasing the venue's full potential. It is, primarily, its people —the team that was created and has continued to support this great venture fanatically for all these years. A heartfelt “thank you” goes to Manolis Sardis, Vaios Machmountes, Kharálampos Goyós, Lila Karangelou, Christina Polychroniadou, Alexis Zervanos, and Vicky Kalaitzidou for their devotion, love, positive attitude, and creativity. I also extend my gratitude to all the collaborators of the Alternative Stage and the staff of the Greek National Opera who have supported the functioning of a new institution that has now become an integral part of the Company.

Tickets for the GNO Alternative Stage’s productions scheduled for the first four months of the 2025/26 season (September to December 2025) will go on sale from 22 July 2025 at the GNO Box Office and ticketservices.gr.