The Greek National Opera welcomes teenagers into the magical world of opera through its educational and social programs. It invites teenagers aged 14 to 18, from different schools and neighborhoods across Attica, to join the sixth cycle of the intercultural opera incubator Co-OPERAtive, with the goal of gradually creating and presenting an original music-theatre production in May 2026 at the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera at the SNFCC.
Each year, the educational program hosts a group of 30 young people of different nationalities—Athenians and underage asylum seekers—in a series of weekly workshops with distinguished artists from the fields of music, theater, and dance. Co-OPERAtive offers participants a space for artistic expression, freedom, and collaboration, where music, speech, and movement, the everyday and the imaginary, meet in creative ways. During the workshops, which run from November to May, the participants develop a common artistic language and co-create—with the guidance of experienced professionals from the arts—a piece of music theater that carries their own voice and the charm of magical realism.
In this year’s cycle, the creative team (director, musician, choreographer) will draw inspiration from short stories by Gabriel García Márquez, characteristic examples of magical realism. Magical realism, with its peculiar coexistence of the everyday and the fantastic, offers fertile ground for music theater, as it allows speech, music, and movement to meet in a multilayered stage universe. The images arising from Márquez’s texts give birth to rich sonic and bodily metaphors, giving music an organic and inseparable role in the storytelling.
Some of the themes that will inspire the workshops are: the presence of the fantastical in everyday life and how it sparks dreams and fantasies; the question “what if the unbelievable suddenly entered our lives?”; the power of collective imagination; the experience of otherness—of the “Other”—as both a challenge and an object of wonder and possibility for change, through our encounter with the strange; the coexistence of the earthly with the transcendent. Themes that reflect the reality of a multicultural group of young people and that lend themselves to imaginative play, musical experimentation, and collective storytelling—shedding light not only on Márquez’s world but also on their own, unknown imaginary one.
In addition, those who take part in the program will have the opportunity to attend general rehearsals and performances of opera, music theater, and ballet, to interact with professionals of the Greek National Opera, to get to know up close all the stages of opera production, and ultimately to present their own work on the Alternative Stage of the GNO.
Participation does not require specialized knowledge in music, theater, or dance. However, any previous amateur or professional involvement in these arts will be taken into account during the application review, while the basic requirements are enthusiasm, interest, and availability on the days and hours of the workshops, rehearsals, and the final performance.
This year’s artistic team of facilitators/trainers will consist of: Nikos Galenianos (composition, music instruction), Sofia Vgenopoulou (directing, acting instruction), Julia Diamantopoulou (text, dramaturgy), Pavlos Thanopoulos (sets, costumes), Eleni Zachopoulou (head of theater workshops), and Antigone Gyra (choreography, head of dance workshops).
Interested parties can submit their application for participation until October 19, 2025, exclusively through the form found HERE.
Closing
Workshop start: November 24, 2025
Workshop days & hours: every Monday, 17:30–20:30
Final rehearsals: May 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 2026, 16:00–21:00 – Alternative Stage of GNO at the SNFCC
Performance date: Sunday, May 31, 2026 – Alternative Stage of GNO at the SNFCC
Information: education@nationalopera.gr, 213 088 5752 / 213 088 5755 (Monday–Friday, 10:00–18:00)
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