Tickets for the Requiem for the End of Love will go on sale on 19 November 2025 at 12.00

24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30 January 2026
Starts at: 19.30, 21.00 (Sunday: 18.30, 20.00)
Stavros Niarchos Hall of the GNO – SNFCC

 Music: Giorgos Koumendakis
Conductor: Teodor Currentzis
Concept, stage direction, choreography, visual design:
Dimitris Papaioannou

Requiem for the End of Love, a work that marked the artistic creation of the 1990s, signals the long-anticipated reunion of two emblematic fellow-travellers of the legendary Edafos Dance Theatre, Dimitris Papaioannou and Giorgos Koumendakis, in a new reading by the internationally acclaimed conductor Teodor Currentzis. Requiem for the End of Love will run for 12 unique performances on 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, and 30 January 2026 in the Stavros Niarchos Hall of the Greek National Opera at the SNFCC. Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday, 19 November 2025 at 12.00. This production is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

In the 2025/26 season, during which the GNO converses with its historical past, the Artistic Director and composer Giorgos Koumendakis brings onto the stage of the Stavros Niarchos Hall one of the iconic symphonic works from his early creative period, reviving, after three decades, a significant performance-installation that bears the signature of Dimitris Papaioannou.

In 1995, at the Old Electric Power Station of PPC in Neo Faliro, Edafos Dance Theatre created a rupture in time with the presentation of the performance-installation A Moment’s Silence, conceived, directed, and choreographed by Dimitris Papaioannou, and featuring music by Giorgos Koumendakis in the first chapter and Manos Hadjidakis in the second chapter. With the trauma induced by the death of beloved friends from AIDS remaining unresolved and with “fear haunting the love lives of an entire generation”, Dimitris Papaioannou asked Giorgos Koumendakis to compose a “death tempest”—a requiem for those who lost their lives to AIDS. In that same performance, a reluctant hope for life was conveyed by Manos Hadjidakis’ Songs of Sin, based on poetry by Dinos Christianopoulos.

Thirty-one years later, after cycles that have opened and closed and paths that were sometimes parallel and at other times opposing, Dimitris Papaioannou sets up the great ladder for that stage installation at the Greek National Opera and reworks anew the Requiem for the End of Love, “one of Giorgos Koumendakis’ most powerful music pieces”, as he notes. The synergy of these two creators, who paved the way for a new stage language in dance, theatre, opera, and even at the Olympic Games ceremonies, is complemented by an ingenious maestro whose name is internationally hailed for his idiosyncratic interpretations of major symphonic works and operas: Teodor Currentzis.

Twenty-four years after the dissolution of Edafos Dance Theatre, which left an indelible mark on the Greek artistic scene during its seventeen-year existence, Greek and international audiences will have the chance to rediscover a work by Dimitris Papaioannou that strikes a balance between physical theatre and visual installation, based on a musical piece that serves as an early dramatic operatic harbinger in Giorgos Koumendakis’ compositional career.

The dynamic collaboration between Papaioannou and Koumendakis during the 1990s led to the first public artistic acknowledgment of the AIDS epidemic in Greece and the rights of an entire community.

Performance-installation • New production
Requiem for the End of Love
Giorgos Koumendakis / Dimitris Papaioannou
24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30 January 2026
Starts at: 19.30, 21.00 (Sunday: 18.30, 20.00)
Stavros Niarchos Hall of the Greek National Opera – SNFCC

Music: Giorgos Koumendakis
Conductor: Teodor Currentzis
Concept, stage direction, choreography, visual design: Dimitris Papaioannou
The set design for the 1995 production was created by Lili Pezanou. The 2026 version is designed by Dimitris Papaioannou and Loukas Bakas.
Costumes: Vassilis Papatsarouchas
Lighting design: Dimitris Papaioannou, Stephanos Droussiotis
Featuring performers, an orchestra, a chorus, and a soprano

Ticket prices: €15, €20, €35, €40, €55, €70, €80, €120
Students, children: €15 • Restricted view seats: €10

Tickets for the production will go on sale on Wednesday, 19 November 2025 at 12.00, at the GNO Box Office (+30 2130885700 | 9.00-21.00 daily) and via www.ticketservices.gr.

Practical information:
Due to expected high demand, an automated waiting queue system will be implemented, according to which visitors will be grouped and ticket purchases will be conducted in sections to ensure a smooth and efficient online advance ticket purchasing process.
Moreover, to accommodate the largest possible number of buyers, a maximum limit of 4 tickets per person will be applied.

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

Major Sponsor: PPC

Lead Donor of the GNO & Production donor: Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)