The exceptionally successful opera production for the whole family The Magic Pillows returns to the Stavros Niarchos Hall to give new life to the dreams of children and grown-ups. On the occasion of the GNO’s enchanting production, once again 10 children aged between 8 and 11 will have the unique chance to get initiated into the magical world of opera, living the singular experience of sleeping over in the Greek National Opera, at the SNFCC, on 12 and 13 November. Backstage exploration, music-motor workshops, getting to know the characters of the work, disguises into heroes inspired by the show, thematic dinner and breakfast accompanied by a small musical ensemble, and story-telling will only be some of the activities, which the children that will spend a night at the Opera will have the chance to enjoy.

Age groups: 8 to 11

Planning / Implementation: Eugene Trivizas & GNO Learning & Participation Department

Dates: 12 & 13 November

Applications can be submitted from 20 to 27 October 2022 exclusively via the form you will find here.

Educational Programme Sponsor

Sleepover's sleep products are courtesy of     

A music-motor education workshop for infants and preschoolers with the accompaniment of live instrumental music from different eras

Opera From The Cradle comes back to the Greek National Opera. Dancing and singing with mom and dad, we will learn to recognize various timbres and styles through the sounds of classical music. Through experiential activities and music-motor games we shall seek hidden treasures in the repertoire ranging from Baroque to the 21st century. Infants and preschoolers shall discover the notions of timbre and style and will get acquainted with classical music and the main families of musical instruments. Moreover, we will learn about how touching awakens the body, and using sound and speech as our guides, we will enhance the contact between infants and their caretakers, and along with it, their confidence.

Age groups: infants from 3 months and not crawling yet (Group A), infants that can crawl and stand up with support (Group B)

Dates & time: 4, 5, 11, 12 February 2023, Group A: 10.00-10.45 • Group B: 11.15-12.00

Planning/Implementation: Dafni Tsiouni (music educator/sound artist), Martha Kloukina (dancer/choreographer)

Applications for Groups A & B can be submitted from 3 to 13 January 2023 exclusively via the form you will find here.

Group C: 1 to 2,5 years of age

Group D: 2,5 to 4 years of age

Planning/Implementation: Dafni Tsiouni (music educator / sound artist), Anna Serkedaki (flutist / music educator)

Dates: 18 February: Baroque • 19 February: Classicism • 4 March : Romanticism • 5 March: 20th-Century Music

Time: Group C 10.00-10.45 • Group D 11.15 – 12.00

Musicians: 18 February: Giorgos Goumenakis (mandolin), Stavros Parginos (cello) • 19 February: Vanessa Athanasiou (violin), Dionysis Vervitsiotis (violin), Elli Filippou (cello), Giannis Athanasopoulos (viola) • 4 March: Krinio Troulou (oboe), Chrysa Grenda (piano) • 5 March: Dimitra Kokkinopoulou (piano)

Applications for Groups C & D can be submitted from 3 to 13 January 2023 exclusively via the form you will find here.

The presence of at least one parent is deemed necessary throughout the duration of the workshop.

Educational Programme Sponsor

3d Bell Opera, the exceptionally successful pilot programme of inter-artistic, multimedia and pedagogical action for Primary Education Schools, continues for a third consecutive year.

This season, the programme expands its boundaries and is not only aimed at schools in Attica but also in the rest of Greece and abroad, under the guidance of composer Alexandros Mouzas.

Through contemporary music theatre practices, 3d Bell Opera aspires to bring educators and primary school students in contact with the fascinating world of music theatre. The goals it has set for this year are to promote creative and critical thinking, cultivate skills and knowledge about the inter-artistic field of music theatre, and also introduce the educators and students that will take part in the programme into the creative process of the making of a contemporary music theatre work titled Drop…I / Ocean…TOGETHER.

The workshops will come complete with a final presentation to the wider audience in the Stavros Niarchos Hall of the Greek National Opera at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in June 2023.

Creative team

Programme design, original score, instrumental ensemble conducting: Alexandros Mouzas

Director, theatrical texts, song lyrics, theatrical training: Anna-Moscha Kambosou

Choreography, movement training: Artemis Ignatiou

Assistant to the choreographer: Afroditi Vervenioti

Vocal and chorus training: Eirini Patsea

Video projections, animation: Spyros Rasidakis

Filming, video editing: Andronikos Dimopoulos

Sound engineering, musical and technological support, sound editing, audiovisual material processing: Fotis Papatheodorou

IT – Interactive music systems, sound engineering: Nikos Kazazis

Singers: Villy Kyriakopoulou (mezzo-soprano), Dimos Vlachos (tenor)

Instrumental ensemble: Vanessa Athanasiou (violin), Dionysis Vervetsiotis (violin), Giannis Athanasopoulos (viola), Alexandros Botinis (cello), Oswald Amiralis (contrabass), Marilena Dori (flute), Grammenos Chalkias (clarinet), Stefanos Dafnis (trumpet), Renato Kousi (trombone), Kostas Seremetis (percussion), Apostolos Palios (piano)

Start of the programme: 5 November 2022

Day & time: Saturdays, 11.00-14.00

Applications can be submitted by 5 October 2022 exclusively via the form you will find here.

Educational Programme Sponsor

Lead Donor of the GNO Learning & Participation Department

Melisma is the new year-long cycle of educational and artistic activities for persons of all ages introduced by the GNO Learning & Participation Department. Its pilot implementation has already started since June 2022 in the wider region of Northern Evia that has been severely affected by the unprecedented wildfires of summer 2021. The project, centered around the villages of Limni and Aghia Anna, focuses on man’s relationship with the natural environment and includes a series of experiential artistic workshops of theatrical expression and creative writing, music, movement, dance, and visual arts, targeted both at already existing and new intergenerational community groups that deal with the customs and traditions of Evia. In the first stage, each workshop will aim at familiarising participants with the key concepts and techniques of each respective art form, and in the second stage, the fertile dialogue and the collaboration between the different art forms will lead to the creation of an original music theatre performance. The performance will be mounted for the first time in Evia in summer 2023, while in September of that same year it will also be presented at the GNO Alternative Stage in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.

Theatrical Expression And Creative Writing Workshops

Wonderful improvisations, plenty of games, interaction exercises, narrations and spontaneous writing of stories, poems and songs will be the ingredients of a project aiming at cultivating imagination, communication, collaboration and team building through a creative process. During the workshops, participants will be called upon to discover the practical applications of theatrical expression and creative writing as a free space of artistic expression within a group. In the second phase of the workshops, focusing on man’s relationship with nature, participants will collaborate with the groups of the rest of the artistic workshops (creative movement and dance, music, visual arts) of the Melisma activity cycle to co-create an original theatre performance, in which everyone will actively participate, onstage or backstage.

Visual Arts Workshops

The visual arts workshops revolving around the planning of a theatre performance are targeted at all ages and aim at introducing participants to all the stages of the set and costume design process. Participants will experiment with new and old methods of artistic creation and design, crafting techniques, costume and special theatre effects design, as well as photography and video. The workshop will offer children and grown-ups a creative experience that will give them the chance to come in contact with the world of visual and performing arts.

Creative Movement And Dance Workshops

Creative movement and dance workshops are targeted at all age groups and aim at promoting experimentation with movement through dance exercises, movement games and improvisation. Participants will form three different and complementary practice groups: a teenagers’ group, a women’s group, and a mixed group with persons of all ages. In their meetings, which will be held once a month throughout the project cycle, the groups will improvise through movement, while they will all together explore how an everyday movement can be transformed, through collaboration, into a dance act and a collective composition.

Music Workshops: Orchestral Ensemble, Choir And Hip Hop

The music workshops will be divided into three categories: an orchestral ensemble, a choral ensemble, and a hip hop/rap music workshop for young people and teenagers. The goal of these workshops is to create groups that will converse with the rest of the programme’s workshops, to accompany the original music theatre performance that will complete the Melisma project. The musical and choral ensembles will include musicians and choristers of all ages and levels and with all types of instruments, while the hip hop/rap workshop will motivate young people and teenagers to write lyrics and compose their own music pie

Music Score and Planning & Implementation of Music Workshops: Yorgos Dousos 

Stage direction: Eleni Efthymiou, Marilena Katranidou 

Texts: Eleni Efthymiou, Marilena Katranidou , Giota Kouitzoglou, Theatrical Expression and Creative Writing Community Group

Research: Marilena Katranidou, Giota Kouitzoglou

Dramaturgy: Eleni Efthymiou 

Sets, Costumes, and Planning & Implementation of Visual Arts Workshops: Dido Gkogkou 

Choreography and Planning & Implementation of Creative Movement and Dance Workshops: Polina Kremasta 

Assistant to the directors: Giota Kouitzoglou

Artistic Coordinator of the Workshops: Marilena Katranidou 

Planning & Implementation of Theatrical Expression and Creative Writing Workshops: Marilena Katranidou, Giota Kouitzoglou

Recording of Educational Methodology: Giota Kouitzoglou