The Greek National Opera is travelling to Kalamata

Three Alternative Stage music theatre productions, one performance by the GNO Ballet, and a series of educational programmes will be featured as part of a two-year memorandum of partnership with the Municipality of Kalamata and the Faris Public Benefit Organisation 
November 2025

The Greek National Opera continues its tours across Greece with a series of performances and educational programmes in Kalamata. For the entire month of November 2025, the GNO, in collaboration with the Municipality of Kalamata and the Kalamata International Dance Centre of the Faris Public Benefit Organisation, will present at the Kalamata Dance Megaron, the dance triptych Return of the Summer featuring the GNO Ballet, the Alternative Stage productions Silence, the King is Listening, Karagiozis as Rigoletto and I Want to See the Pope!, as well as a series of educational programmes. The “GNO Tours Greece” programme is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

Following the successful participation of the Ballet and the Professional School of Dance of the Greek National Opera in the 31st Kalamata International Dance Festival, the Company’s presence in the Messinian capital expands, as part of a two-year partnership memorandum signed in July 2025 by Giorgos Koumendakis, the Artistic Director of the GNO, and Thanasis Vasilopoulos, the Mayor of Kalamata. All GNO performances and events in Kalamata will be held at the venues of the Kalamata Dance Megaron.

The Greek National Opera is set to start its activities in Kalamata on the 1st of November with two educational programmes for children: Dad… Shall We Dance? and Musical Narrations.

On the 4th of November, the GNO Alternative Stage will present two morning performances (at 9.30 and 11.00) of the musical for the whole family, Silence, the King Is Listening, by Nikos Kypourgos, featuring a libretto by Thomas Moschopoulos and stage direction by Theo Abazis. The production also includes Haris Andrianos, Vassia Zacharopoulou, and Nicholas Stefanou in the main roles, along with a small instrumental ensemble.

On the 6th of November, the GNO’s new shadow puppet opera, Karagiozis as Rigoletto, with a musical adaptation by Lina Zachari and a libretto by Dimitris Dimopoulos and Alexandros Melissinos, will be performed at 9.30 and 11.00. The production features the soloists Manos Kokkonis, Giannis Selitsianiotis, Marilena Striftombola, and shadow puppeteer Alexandros Melissinos.

Scheduled for the afternoon of the 6th November at 18.30 and 21.00 is Theofrastos Sakellaridis’ operetta I Want to See the Pope!. This production is directed by Natasha Triantafylli and orchestrated by Michalis Papapetrou. The cast features Dimitris Sigalos, Vangelis Maniatis, Julia Souglakou, Chrissa Maliamani, Nicolas Maraziotis, Marisia Papalexiou, Antonis Kyriakakis, along with a small instrumental ensemble.

On the 22nd and 23rd of November, the GNO Ballet will present the dance triptych Return of the Summer, which includes the pieces Boléro by Konstantinos Rigos with music by Maurice Ravel, Point of No Return by Ioannis Mandafounis with music by Giorgos Koumendakis, and Les Nuits d’été by Konstantinos Rigos with music by Hector Berlioz.

On the 23rd of November, Kalamata audiences will have the chance to enjoy the Pocket Opera Rigoletto, an educational programme for infants and toddlers aged 1 to 3 years.

All the performances that will be held in Kalamata will have free admission for the audience upon priority vouchers that will be available via www.ticketservices.gr, as part of the programme “The GNO Tours Greece”. This programme is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

Interested parties can apply for the educational events and the performances for schools from 23 to 31 October by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information about the application process, you can contact the numbers 2721083086 & 2721180868 (10.00-13.00, Monday-Friday).

The Greek National Opera is funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture

Lead GNO & Tour Donor

Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

KALAMATA TOUR SCHEDULE – NOVEMBER 2025

1 NOVEMBER 2025
Educational programmes at the Main Stage of Kalamata Dance Megaron
Dad… Shall We Dance?
At 11.00 for children aged 5-7 years
At 12.30 for children aged 8-11 years
Kalamata Dance Megaron – Main Stage
Designed and implemented by: Giannis Stavropoulos, Thenia Antoniadi
Piano tba

Dad… Shall We Dance? This dance games workshop, cherished by children and fathers alike, is an invitation to a highly entertaining dance. Fathers are called upon to dance with their children, attempt challenging ballet poses, explore the limits of balance, and engage with their partners through movement and dance. Through motor activities, improvisations, and games, the workshop reveals the body’s rhythm and movement as a philosophy of life and a necessary component of daily living.

You can apply to participate in the programme from 23 to 31 October by emailing  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information about the application process, please contact the numbers 2721083086 & 2721180868 (10.00-13.00, Monday-Friday).

Musical Narrations
At 18.00 and 19.30 for children over 7 years old
Kalamata Dance Megaron – Main Stage
Designed and implemented by: Goats Know the Way (Elli Giannaki, Elsa Kundig, Dimitris Kourtis)

Musical Narrations invites both young and older audiences on a unique journey through the enchanting world of fairy tales. The programme features music and storytelling performances with traditional songs and melodies from various parts of the world. Drawing on stories from old storytellers, this programme aims to offer us abundant laughter and valuable lessons of folk wisdom. Extraordinary and imaginary happenings, along with plenty of magic, goblins, Norwegian countryside trolls, queens, fairies, and strange occurrences, all come together in a delightful journey filled with humour and wisdom.

> You can apply to participate in the programme from 23 to 31 October by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information about the application process, please contact the numbers 2721083086 & 2721180868 (10.00-13.00, Monday-Friday).

4 NOVEMBER 2025
Music theatre for young audiences • Greek National Opera Alternative Stage production
Nikos Kypourgos
Silence, the King Is Listening
Kalamata Dance Megaron – Main Stage
Morning performances for schools at 9.30 & 11.00
Libretto: Thomas Moschopoulos (in collaboration with the composer)
Transcription for small ensemble: Kharálampos Goyós
Stage director: Theo Abazis
Set & costume designer: Kenny MacLellan
Lighting designer: Nikos Sotiropoulos
Associate director: Eleana Tsichli
Cast: Haris Andrianos (King), Vassia Zacharopoulou (Muse), Nicholas Stefanou (Musician)
Featuring the musicians: Odysseas Siozopoulos (clarinet), Sofia Efklidou (violoncello), Christos Sakellaridis (piano)

The brilliant musical Silence, the King Is Listening, by the distinguished composer Nikos Kypourgos, one of the most successful productions of the Greek National Opera, offers an immersive music theatre experience that introduces audiences to the enchanting world of music theatre. Its educational character, entertaining performances, and exceptionally direct musical language help convey the fundamentals of music even to uninitiated audiences, in the guise of a game.

The music king is never satisfied, no matter what pieces of music his court musician plays. The musician is roused from his despair by the Muse, who seizes the opportunity to return to a job she had not practised since the glorious eras of Schubert, Mozart, and Bach. She enlists the help of the seven notes of the musical scale, inspiring the musician to write a wonderful piece, which once again fails to satisfy the king! It’s time, therefore, for the imagination to give (as always!) a solution…

The musical Silence, the King Is Listening is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Emperor’s New Clothes. Deftly poised between operatic traditionalism and playful postmodernism, this work is a perfect introduction to both young and older audiences of the concepts, techniques, and tools of musical writing. “Silence, the King Is Listening is not a work written for children. Only after its completion, some saw in it an educational character that makes it also appropriate for children. Therefore, in a way, what I’ve always believed became apparent: that the boundaries between works for adults and works for children are never too clear or too discernible,” notes the composer, Nikos Kypourgos.

> Schools can apply to attend the performance from 23 to 31 October by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information about the application process, please contact the numbers 2721083086 & 2721180868 (10.00-13.00, Monday-Friday).

6 NOVEMBER 2025
Shadow puppet theatre • Greek National Opera Alternative Stage production
Alexandros Melissinos / Dimitris Dimopoulos
Karagiozis as Rigoletto
Kalamata Dance Megaron – Main Stage
Morning performances for schools at 9.30 & 11.00

Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Original libretto: Francesco Maria Piave
Musical adaptation: Lina Zachari
Text: Dimitris Dimopoulos, Alexandros Melissinos
Lyric translation: Dimitris Dimopoulos
Cast: Manos Kokkonis, Giannis Selitsaniotis, Marilena Striftombola
Shadow puppeteer: Alexandros Melissinos
Frixos Mortzos (piano)

The most famous and beloved hunchbacked jester in shadow puppet theatre, Karagiozis, is called upon to carry out… an operatic mission: to perform the most renowned hunchback in opera, Rigoletto! In the new shadow puppet opera production Karagiozis as Rigoletto, written by the prolific comedian, director, and librettist Dimitris Dimopoulos and the experienced shadow puppeteer Alexandros Melissinos, Karagiozis unexpectedly finds himself playing the lead role in Rigoletto at an opera house founded by the Vizier’s daughter in the saray (palace), all while learning with humour and a disarming innocence everything required to stage an opera.

The performance combines traditional shadow puppet theatre with excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi’s masterful opera Rigoletto, performed in Greek by three opera singers, humourously revealing the backstage of an opera house while providing knowledge and abundant laughter… in an alternative way!

The character of Karagiozis is brought to life with liveliness and originality by Alexandros Melissinos, making this performance a fresh and interactive take on shadow puppet theatre. Karagiozis as Rigoletto is a production suitable for both young and older audiences, promising to entertain and educate while demonstrating that tradition and the art of opera can be combined with humour and creativity.

> Schools can apply to attend the performance from 23 to 31 October by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information about the application process, please contact the numbers 2721083086 & 2721180868 (10.00-13.00, Monday-Friday).

6 NOVEMBER 2025
Operetta • Greek National Opera Alternative Stage production
Theofrastos Sakellaridis
I Want to See the Pope!
Kalamata Dance Megaron – Main Stage
Double performance at 18.30 & 21.00

Stage direction Natasha Triantafylli
Arrangement for a four-member instrumental ensemble: Michalis Papapetrou
Music coach: Nicolas Vassiliou
Dramaturgy, adaptation: Elena Triantafyllopoulou
Sets, costumes: Tina Tzoka
Movement: Dimitra Mitropoulou
Lighting design: Christos Tziogkas
Performers: Varonas: Dimitris Sigalos • Latroudis: Vangelis Maniatis • Mrs Latroudis: Julia Souglakou • Anna: Chrissa Maliamani • Adrianos: Nicolas Maraziotis • Rita: Marisia Papalexiou • Dimosthenis: Antonis Kyriakakis
Featuring the musicians: Ilias Skordilis (clarinet), Dionysis Vervitsiotis (violin), Dimitris Tigkas (double bass), Konstantinos Zigkeridis (bayan)

Everyone wants to see the Pope! After a successful run of performances at the GNO Alternative Stage, the legendary operetta I Want to See the Pope! by Theofrastos Sakellaridis is travelling across Greece, featuring stage direction by Natasha Triantafylli alongside an outstanding cast of opera performers and musicians.

The operetta I Want to See the Pope! (1920), which generated strong reactions upon its initial release, fully explores Theofrastos Sakellaridis’ modern bourgeois themes. The composer also penned the libretto, which is a domestic adaptation of Maurice Hennequin’s farce Les Joies du foyer (1894). The plot features a newly married bourgeois couple whose relationship is disrupted during their honeymoon trip to Rome when the young wife expresses the desire to see the Pope up close!

The work’s style, language, characters, music, and rhythm reveal a captivating stage world where hypocrisy, exaggeration, exhibitionism, and the unquestioned idealisation of certain social institutions are sharply satirised. The audience witnesses a wedding, the expectations of the newlyweds and their relatives, and a Pope who—although he never appears—remains the unseen protagonist of the show throughout its duration, serving as a reminder of the fact that confusion, mix-ups, and the pitfalls of established values are often inextricable parts of human desire.

> To attend the performance, free priority vouchers will be available at www.ticketservices.gr. Tickets will be distributed starting on Friday, 31 October at 12.00. Each audience member may receive up to two tickets per performance.

22, 23 NOVEMBER 2025
Dance • GNO Ballet
Return of the Summer
Modern dance triptych with choreographies by Konstantinos Rigos and Ioannis Mandafounis Kalamata Dance Megaron – Main Stage
Starts at: 22 November at 21.00 & 23 November at 20.00
Boléro – Choreography: Konstantinos Rigos
Music: Maurice Ravel
Collaborating costume designer: Tota Pritsa | Lighting design: Christos Tziogkas
Featuring the GNO Ballet Principal Dancer Vangelis Bikos

Point of No Return – Choreography, costume coordination: Ioannis Mandafounis
Music: Giorgos Koumendakis
Lighting design: Christos Tziogkas
Featuring the dancers of the GNO Ballet

Les Nuits d’été – Choreography, set: Konstantinos Rigos
Music: Hector Berlioz | Verses: Théophile Gautier
Costumes: Deux Hommes | Lighting design: Christos Tziogkas
Featuring the dancers of the GNO Ballet

The diptych Return of the Summer presents a dialogue between Ioannis Mandafounis’ Point of No Return, set to music by Giorgos Koumendakis, and GNO Ballet Director Konstantinos Rigos’ Les Nuits d’été, featuring music by Hector Berlioz, resulting in an impressively vibrant and dynamic modern dance programme.

Konstantinos Rigos choreographs Maurice Ravel’s famous Boléro, inviting us to rediscover its artistic roots. Boléro originally started as an intense, technically demanding dance in 19th-century Spain, accompanied by the rhythm of castanets. Although it was initially intended for an ensemble of dancers, it progressively evolved into a solo dance, as presented in Rigos’ choreography. Marked by a strict minimalist aesthetic and profound romanticism, this choreography illuminates the cross-temporal power of music and dance.

In Point of No Return, the internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer Ioannis Mandafounis crafts a modern piece that combines dance elements deeply rooted in classical ballet tradition. In tune with the music of Giorgos Koumendakis, the GNO Ballet dancers focus on the transparency and authenticity of their moves via the arsenal of classical ballet steps. Although the ensemble’s physical performance reveals an extremely classical choreographic approach, one can still recognise the individuality of the performers as well as a particularly modern treatment of the presence and interpretation of movement. These obvious elements signal the choreographer’s unique style across all of his new works.

The famous song cycle Les Nuits d’été is one of Hector Berlioz’s most popular works. The renowned French composer wrote these six songs for voice and piano, setting poetry by Théophile Gautier. His goal was to musically portray love in its most idealised form through delicate melodies. Inspired by the song cycle of the same title, Konstantinos Rigos creates, together with the GNO Ballet, a work about love, loneliness, the quest, and the journey. Gestures and shapes craft a kaleidoscope of our individual inner summer. The work will be performed by internationally acclaimed baritone Tassis Christoyannis, accompanied by Sofia Tamvakopoulou on the piano.

> To attend the performance, free priority vouchers will be available at www.ticketservices.gr. Tickets will be distributed starting on Monday, 17 November at 12.00. Each audience member may receive up to two tickets per performance.

23 NOVEMBER 2025
Educational Programme
Pocket Opera: Rigoletto
Kalamata Dance Megaron– Alternative Stage
At 10.00, 11.30 and 13.00, for infants and toddlers aged 1-3 years
Designed and implemented by: Weave Company (Vasilis Tzavaras, Michalis Nivolianitis, Erato Tzavara, Miranda Vatikioti, Natalia Moschakou)

The Pocket Opera workshop Rigoletto is an original multi-sensory experience, specially designed for infants and small children aged 1 to 3 years, inspired by Giuseppe Verdi’s opera of the same name. The workshop attempts to create a multimedia world of sound, image, and movement, aiming to bring children closer to the world of opera through sensory exploration and active participation. Starting with the aria “La donna è mobile” and drawing upon natural landscapes, particularly the wondrous world of birds, concepts such as change, transformation, and climax are explored through hands-on experiences. In a specially designed visual setting, moving images and colours alternate, accompanied by natural soundscapes and live performances of Verdi’s adapted musical themes by the team’s musicians. In this way, the workshop creates an open learning environment, rich in auditory and visual stimuli, through which children, along with their guardians, are encouraged to actively participate, interact with one another, and express themselves freely as they observe the alternating landscapes and motifs.

The event does not follow the conventional form of a typical theatrical performance. On the contrary, it opens up a space for free expression, imagination, and play, inviting us into an engaging conversation with the world of opera.

> Applications to participate in the programme can be submitted from 23 to 31 October at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. For more information about the application process, please contact the following numbers: 2721083086 & 2721180868 (10.00-13.00, Monday-Friday).