Our Members
Profile
The Greek National Opera (GNO) is the only opera house in Greece. Since opening its doors in 1939, the GNO has endured as one of the most important cultural institutions in the country, its long history intertwined with every major event to have marked modern Greek history across the 19th and 20th centuries.
From 1944 right through until 2017, the GNO was housed in the heart of Athens, at the historic 700-seat Olympia Theatre. Since the mid-1940s, the GNO has also presented summer opera and ballet productions at the open-air Odeon of Herodes Atticus, and has occasionally presented works of opera at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus. In the late 1990s, the GNO also began presenting productions at Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall.
A major turning point in its history came in 2017, when the GNO moved to a new state-of-the-art building at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), constructed and equipped through an exclusive grant –exceeding €630 million– donated by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). The SNFCC, designed by the renowned architect Renzo Piano, also houses the National Library of Greece, and its buildings are set within an exceptional park reaching almost to the sea. During the summer months, the GNO presents major opera productions at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which seats around 5,000. At the SNFCC, the Greek National Opera presents its artistic programme on two stages: the 1,400-seat Stavros Niarchos Hall, and the 350-seat Alternative Stage.
In 2017, the position of GNO Artistic Director was taken on by the acclaimed composer Giorgos Koumendakis, who set the following objectives for his artistic programming: expanding the house’s repertoire, nurturing new creative output through direct commissions, presenting cutting takes on classic works, showcasing major Greek artists, forging a meaningful relationship with society at large, connecting opera with other art forms such as the visual arts and filmmaking, and partnering with internationally acclaimed opera artists.
The Greek National Opera’s guiding vision is to be recognised as one of Europe’s most innovative opera houses, set apart by its unique artistic signature – an institution that engages broad and diverse audiences, and targets creative partnerships with eminent Greek and international artists.
The GNO is overseen and funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. Its Lead Donor is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Corporate Social Responsibility
One of the Greek National Opera’s key priorities is to operate in line with sustainable development principles.
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center –the GNO’s new home since 2017– has been internationally certified for its green credentials, thus ensuring low energy consumption and respect for the environment across the opera house’s activities.
In light of ever more urgent appeals in recent decades for meaningful interventions to combat activities that impact and harm the environment, the GNO has tasked a university body with carrying out a study calculating its carbon footprint across every site where it is active, since some of its work is hosted in spaces beyond the limits of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center complex.
Once this study is complete, every GNO department (production, costume, set construction, logistics, and so on) will be restructured so as to operate on the basis of sustainable principles, instigating the reuse of materials and sets, recycling initiatives, a reduction in transport pollution through the use of green vehicles, and other such actions.
As regards contributions to civil society, the Greek National Opera plans and implements a wide range of Learning and Participation Programmes, held not just in Athens but also across many towns and cities in the Greek regions. These programmes are designed to meet the needs of children and teenagers, families, young artists, and persons aged 65 and over. Places on these programmes are filled via an online registration process on a first-come, first-served basis, and participation is free.
In addition, as part of its diversity programme, the GNO has founded and is nurturing a series of Intercultural Ensembles (an orchestra, a choir, and a dance ensemble) whose membership embraces adolescent and adult immigrants and refugees.
As part of this same programme, the GNO also created an intercultural opera hub for a mixed group of 30 Athenians and unaccompanied asylum-seekers aged 14-18 from across Attica. In 2019, this programme won the inaugural European FEDORA Prize for Education.
