The Greek National Opera joins the 61st Dimitria Festival with four unique productions

Opera
Viva la mamma!
3, 4 October 2026 • Starts at: 21.00
Royal Theatre

Shadow puppet opera
Karagiozis as Rigoletto
4 October 2026 • Double performance at 11.00 and 13.00
Royal Theatre

Melodrama • New production
The Murderess
5 October 2026 • Starts at: 21.00
Royal Theatre

Cine-opera pastiche• New production
À Paris tous les deux
6 October 2026 • Starts at: 21.00
Ceremony Hall of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

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 GNO programme for this year’s – 61st – Dimitria Festival includes the comic opera Viva la mamma!, a fresh and subversive take on Gaetano Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Conventions and Inconveniences of the Stage, 1827), directed by Sofia Paschou (Royal Theatre, 3, 4 /10); the shadow puppet opera Karagiozis as Rigoletto by Dimitris Dimopoulos and Alexandros Melissinos, which reveals the backstage of an opera house with boundless humour (Royal Theatre, 4/10); and Giorgos Koumendakis’ The Murderess, which returns to the stage as a melodrama, performed by Karyofyllia Karabeti, and adapted, arranged, and conducted by Markellos Chryssicos (Royal Theatre, 5/10). The programme concludes with the cine-opera pastiche À Paris tous les deux by Vasilis Louras and Michalis Ashtenidis – a cross-genre spectacle that creates a dialogue between opera and cinema, featuring the GNO soloists Chrissa Maliamani, Anna Stylianaki, and Manos Kokkonis, accompanied on the piano by Marilena Souri (Ceremony Hall of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 6/10).

More specifically, the GNO productions to be presented at the 61st Dimitra Festival are as follows :

Opera
Gaetano Donizetti
Viva la mamma!
3, 4 October 2026 • Starts at: 21.00
Royal Theatre
Production: Greek National Opera Alternative Stage

Original libretto: Domenico Gilardoni
Adaptation: Sofia Paschou, in collaboration with the team 
Director: Sofia Paschou 
Musical text adaptation, musical dramaturgy consultant: Kharálampos Goyós

Dramaturgy: Katerina Mavrogeorgi
Sets, costumes: Claire Bracewell |
Lighting design: Sofia Alexiadou
Voice-over scoring: Christos Sakellaridis

Cast: Daphne David, Vassilis Kavayas, Chrissa Maliamani, Marios Sarantidis, Marinos Tarnanas, Kostas Filippoglou, Apostolis Psichramis

Piano: Christos Sakellaridis 

Epic costumes, epic misunderstandings, epic laughter! The successful comic opera Viva la mamma! – a fresh and subversive take on Gaetano Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (Conventions and Inconveniences of the Stage, 1827) – is presented under Sofia Paschou’s direction. Odd sets, stunning costumes with endless trains, and human vanity take centre stage, while a select cast of opera singers and actors delivers an unexpected situation comedy filled with misunderstandings, bountiful humour, and sarcasm.   

Viva la mamma! brilliantly satirizes the endless confrontations and vanity prevailing behind the scenes of a music theatre company. The plot focuses on the preparations for a performance that test everyone’s nerves and relationships. A semi-amateur troupe struggles, against all odds, to stage an opera performance; their effort, however, derails because of the signers’ whims and strife, the ploys of a desperate tenor from abroad, and, most of all, the arrival of the sweeping “mama”
Agata, the mother of the second protagonist in line, who barges into rehearsals demanding revisions and new music written especially for her daughter – until the entire production ultimately ends in blatant failure.

Tickets starting at €10 are available here.

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Shadow puppet opera
Alexandros Melissinos / Dimitris Dimopoulos
Karagiozis as Rigoletto
4 October 2026 • Double performance at 11.00 and 13.00
Royal Theater
Production: Greek National Opera Alternative Stage

Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Original libretto: Francesco Maria Piave
Musical adaptation: Lina Zachari
Text: Dimitris Dimopoulos, Alexandros Melissinos
Greek lyrics adaptation: Dimitris Dimopoulos

Cast: Manos Kokkonis, Dimitra Kotidou, Yannis Selitsaniotis
Shadow puppeteer: Alexandros Melissinos
Piano: Markos Kotsias

The successful shadow puppet opera Karagiozis as Rigoletto, written by versatile comedian, director and librettist Dimitris Dimopoulos and experienced shadow puppeteer Alexandros Melissinos, is coming to the 61st Dimitria Festival to offer knowledge and boundless laughter… in an alternative way!

The most famous and beloved hunchback jester in shadow puppet theatre, Karagiozis, is called upon to undertake an… operatic mission: to perform the most renowned hunchback in opera, Rigoletto! The production combines traditional shadow puppet theatre with excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi’s masterful opera Rigoletto, performed in Greek by three opera singers, while humorously revealing what’s going on behind the scenes of an opera house. Alexandros Melissinos brings the role of Karagiozis to life with vibrancy and originality, making this performance a fresh and interactive take on shadow puppet theatre. A performance for children and adults alike, promising to entertain and educate.

Tickets starting at €10 are available here.

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Melodrama • New production
Alexandros Papadiamantis / Giorgos Koumendakis
The Murderess
5 October 2026 • Starts at: 21.00
Royal Theatre
A co-production of the Greek National Opera and the National Theatre of Greece  

Dramaturgy, adaptation, musical direction: Markellos Chryssicos
Transcription for a small instrumental ensemble: Yannis Samprovalakis
Performer: Karyofyllia Karabeti
Featuring musicians from the Thessaloniki State Orchestra
Répétitrice Sofia Tamvakopoulou

Following a long and successful operatic journey, Giorgos Koumendakis’ The Murderess returns to the stage, this time as a melodrama, featuring Karyofyllia Karabeti. Before its Athens performances, Frangoyannoù’s new journey will stop in Thessaloniki for a single performance as part of the 61st Dimitria Festival.

Following the main narrative axis of Alexandros Papadiamantis' original text and featuring a new, abridged version of Giorgos Koumendakis’ musical work for a chamber ensemble, The Murderess returns to the stage to be redeemed once again between divine and human justice.  

The musical soul portrait composed by Giorgos Koumendakis, which converses with the profound, poetic, dark, and timeless essence of Papadiamantis’ work and incorporates elements of the Greek musical tradition into its musical language, meets renowned actress Karyofyllia Karabeti, who, following the score, will read excerpts from the work in a distinctive, fervent, and highly demanding narration, highlighting the rare musicality of Papadiamantis’ unique idiom while preserving its dramatic tension intact.

Tickets starting at 10€ are available here.

Production sponsor: Piraeus Bank

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Cine-opera pastiche • New production
À Paris tous les deux
6 October 2026 • Starts at: 21.00
Ceremony Hall of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
A co-production between the Greek National Opera and the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris)

Conceived, written, and curated by Vasilis Louras
Directed by Michalis Asthenidis, Vasilis Louras
Producer: Stella Angeletou
Choreography, movement: Yorghos Matskaris

Cast: Chrissa Maliamani (soprano), Anna Stylianaki (soprano), Manos Kokkonis (tenor)
Piano: Marilena Souri
Special guest: Fanny Ardant (courtesy appearance)

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.

Free admission.

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

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