(Source: Official Website)

The Greek National Opera has announced its first annual report following the four-year, 20 million euro grant it received from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to support the organization’s outreach strategy.

Per the report, the grant has enabled the GNO to collaborate with a number of international artists, including the entire creative cast behind “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk;” La Fura del Baus and Carmen Giannattasio on “Norma;” Lisette Oropesa, Saimir Pirgu and Alexey Dolgov on “La Traviata,” Alexander Vinogradov, Marcelo Puente, Barbara Frittoli, Ekaterina Gubanova, and Elena Zidkhova on “Don Carlo,” Anita Rachvelishvili in “Werther,” Matthew Polenzani on “Rigoletto,” and Anna Pirozzi on “Tosca,” among many others.

The grant has also allowed the company the opportunity to commission three new operas for the 2019-20 season including “On the Composer,” a film project in collaboration with Yorgo Lanthimos. Composer George Vasilantonakis will composer “Papess Joanne” to mark the company’s 80^th anniversary while young composer Angelos Triantafyllou will create “Inland.”

Finally, the company has been able to work on international partnerships, including the hotly anticipated “The Seven Deaths of Maria Callas” as well as two Verdi operas with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Moreover, the company has collaborated with the Vienna State Opera on “La Sonnambula” and Opéra de Paris on “Werther.”

The company will also be managing new partnerships with such companies as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Baden-Baden Festival, Mark Morris Dance Group, Opéra Comique, Aix-en-Provence, Göteborg Opera and Royal Danish Opera, La Monnaie, Rossini-Pesaro Festival, Finnish national Opera, and Printemps des Arts de Monte Carlo, among others for 2021-22 and beyond.

“In the past year, the GNO has grown its capacity and further cultivated its artistic vision, become more extroverted in outlook, opened up to new audiences, bolstered its staff, traveled beyond Athens,” stated Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. “It has developed collaborations with important international cultural organizations, and has spread its wings to the U.S. All of us at SNF offer our best wishes for the GNO in gaining the appreciation it merits amongst the world’s great opera companies.”