At this year’s annual International Opera Awards, a marquee event in opera, which took place on October 2 at the famous home of the Bavarian State Opera (Bayerische Staatsoper) in Munich, SNF was recognized for its longstanding and pivotal support to the Greek National Opera (GNO), both through the creation of its new home at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) and through enduring support to strengthen its artistic outreach.
The award—in the philanthropy category—was received on behalf of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) by George Agouridis, a member of SNF’s Board of Directors and its Senior Legal Advisor. In accepting the award, he said, “Why have we supported opera-related projects at Covent Garden, Opéra national de Paris and Opéra National de Lyon, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Lincoln Center? We believe that everyone deserves access to life’s essentials, and art is essential. Since 2012, we’ve partnered with the Greek National Opera to support its artistic outreach. Again and again, we’ve seen the GNO, particularly under Artistic Director Giorgos Koumentakis, rethink who opera could be for. Each time its answer has been broader and more ambitious.”
At the same time, the performance Iphigénie en Aulide & Iphigénie en Tauride was awarded in the New Production category. This is the first performance of the GNO for the 2024/25 artistic season at the Stavros Niarchos Hall, which will premiere on 10 October, in a major international co-production with the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Opéra National de Paris. The production is supported by the new SNF grant, which was announced in July 2024, to further strengthen GNO’s artistic outreach.
The total number of nominations, submitted by opera lovers around the world in categories covering emerging artistic work, an audience award, and sustainability, exceeded 16,000. The finalists were then shortlisted by an international jury of performers, opera critics, and administrators from 20 countries chaired by John Allison, editor-in-chief of Opera with Opera News and classical music critic for the Daily Telegraph. The winners in all categories, except the audience award, were decided by the jury.
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