Avanti, Maestro! Following its grand tour across Greece, which captivated both children and adults, the shadow puppet opera Rigoletto as Karagiozis is coming to delight Athens audiences at the GNO Alternative Stage in the SNFCC for 10 morning performances, from 14 December 2025 to 4 January 2026. In this new successful production of the Alternative Stage, the most famous hunchback jester in shadow puppet theatre, Karagiozis, is called upon to undertake an… operatic mission: to perform the most renowned hunchback in opera, Rigoletto! Karagiozis as Rigoletto is an imaginative and ingenious production that humorously unveils the entire backstage world of opera, spreading knowledge and plenty of laughter in an alternative way!

The shadow puppet opera Karagiozis as Rigoletto, written by versatile comedian, director and librettist Dimitris Dimopoulos and experienced shadow puppeteer Alexandros Melissinos, suddenly makes Karagiozis a star in Giuseppe Verdi’s masterful opera Rigoletto. With boundless humour and a disarming innocence, this beloved hero learns everything required to stage an opera, discovering the magic of music theatre through the colourful universe of shadow puppetry.

Its plot is quite intriguing: preparations for the opening of an opera house founded by the Vizier’s daughter in the seraglio are reaching their climax. The opening performance will be the opera Rigoletto, with her in the leading role of Gilda. Seeking the perfect performer for the role of Rigoletto, Gilda’s father and the court’s hunchback jester, the Vizier’s daughter decides to call Karagiozis to audition. Karagiozis is successful, and after the auditions for the role of the Duke are also completed, the three main roles of the opera are filled. Rehearsals begin for a glamorous premiere, brimming with unexpected setbacks and sudden misunderstandings…

The performance Karagiozis as Rigoletto skillfully combines traditional shadow puppet theatre with excerpts from Verdi’s opera Rigoletto and Francesco Maria Piave’s original libretto, performed in Greek by opera singers Manos Kokkonis, Giannis Selitsaniotis, and Marilena Striftombola, accompanied on the piano by Markos Kotsias and Lina Zachari, who is also responsible for the musical adaptation.

Alexandros Melissinos brings Karagiozis’ world to life with vibrancy and originality, making this performance a fresh and interactive take on shadow puppet theatre. “Our performance is a unique way for both children and adults to be introduced to opera through shadow puppet theatre. Although these two arts may seem different, in practice, we discover that they share many elements. The action unfolds both onstage and backstage, featuring themes from Verdi’s renowned opera. In addition to experiencing Rigoletto as a work, audiences also get to know how operas are technically staged, discovering the art behind the scenes. This performance offers not only entertainment but also knowledge,” notes Alexandros Melissinos.

About the making of the show, Dimitris Dimopoulos, who also adapted the libretto excerpts into Greek, remarks: “When I was invited to take on the translation of the sung excerpts and write the prose parts for this work, along with shadow puppeteer Alexandros Melissinos, I suggested that the plot should revolve around the preparation of an opera for the opening of an opera house, because what immediately popped into my mind was the image of the character Hadjiavatis as a crier, trumpeting an audition, along with the typical parade of characters who come to participate in it. This is kind of how we managed to avoid the gravitas of the original work, as we did not want to smooth out the melodramatic core of the opera’s plot; instead, we kept it in the new adaptation of the lyrics from selected excerpts that are interpolated into a text marked by many of the traditional shadow puppet theatre techniques, including, of course, the shadow puppeteer’s improvisations. In a nutshell, oh, it’s such fun!”

Brief biographical notes
Lina Zachari
Born in Heraklion, Crete, in 1999. She studied composition at the Athens Conservatoire, from which she graduated with a diploma in composition with honours, first prize and a special distinction in memory of Dimitris Dragatakis. She is currently pursuing postgraduate studies (MMus in Composition) at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag. Among her various works, the chamber opera Charlotte: operOtic monodrama stands out, presented at the GNO Alternative Stage (2024). She has participated in workshops for young composers and creators organised by GNO, Athens State Orchestra and Experimental Stage of the National Theatre of Greece. She has collaborated with such institutions as GNO Alternative Stage, National Theatre of Greece, Hellenic Composers’ Union, Musica Sacra festival in Maastricht, Center for Contemporary Music Research, Drama Schools of both the National Theatre and the Athens Conservatoire, Lyric Theater of Crete, Chania Chamber Music Festival, Olympus Festival, CHÓRES female choral ensemble, Third Programme of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, and others. She is a founding member of the company Arte Libera and a regular member of the Hellenic Composers’ Union.

linazachari.com

Dimitris Dimopoulos
He began as a stand-up comedian in 1996 at the Comedy Nights. He has written the stand-up monologues A4, Kafrokrema, Yperparagogi and Anti Didaktorikou, as well as the librettos for the operas The Twilight of the Debts, AirRossini, and Yasou Aida!, for which he was awarded the 2012 Karolos Koun Dramaturgy Award for Greek Work by the Hellenic Association of Theatre and Music Critics. He directed the musical The Last Five Years, the music theatre performances Kafka-Fragmente, Das Schubert Diploma, and Evening Songs, the operetta Sataneries, as well as the stage plays The Minions of Midas and Tsaika!. As a translator, he has worked in subtitling, dubbing, and for the GNO (on The Last Five Years, My Fair Lady, Once, Die Fledermaus and Pimpinone). He speaks German, English, Spanish, and Russian. He holds an acting degree (Higher Drama School Iasmos), a degree from the Department of Tourism Management (Athens University of Applied Sciences) and is a graduate of the German School of Athens. In 2022, he graduated with distinction from the Postgraduate Programme in the Department of Theatre Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, specialising in Performance–Dramaturgy.

Alexandros Melissinos
He was born in Athens in 1980 and graduated from the Department of Sound Technology and Musical Instruments of the Ionian University. He has been involved with shadow theatre since childhood, having worked as an assistant behind the screen (berdés) for his father, Iason Melissinos. He also adapts traditional plays and creates new works inspired by Greek mythology and literature. He has participated in festivals both in Greece and abroad, in countries such as England, Korea, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Turkey.

Manos Kokkonis
He was born in Athens and graduated with honours from the Department of Music Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He studied classical singing in the class of Christina Yannakopoulou at the Municipal Conservatory of Kalamata, from which he graduated with a diploma with honours and first prize. He received a full scholarship from the Municipal Conservatory of Kalamata twice (2021 and 2022). In 2024, he was selected by GNO as the cover for the role of Alfredo in La traviata. He has appeared in a variety of opera productions, performing, in 2022, the role of Vassili in Ivan and the Firebird, the role of Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas and, in 2024, he participated in the world premiere of Galatea by Emilios Riadis, singing the role of Menalkas. In 2025, he performed Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor. He has also participated in opera galas and recitals in Greece and abroad. He has attended seminars and masterclasses with Marlis Petersen, Fabio Centanni, Massimo Morelli, Ulrich Rademacher, Dimitri Platanias, Tassis Christoyannis and Aris Christofellis.

Υannis Selitsaniotis
Baritone. He was born in Athens. He studied classical singing in Greece with Efi Adilini (voice diploma, 2007) and in Germany with Carol Richardson-Smith and Jeff Smith, professors at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. He continued his training with soprano Fotini Kostopoulos and Italian baritone Gianni Maffeo. He has collaborated with GNO, Athens State Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra (Eptapyrgio Festival), Thessaloniki Municipal Symphony Orchestra (Eptapyrgio Festival), Armonia Atenea, Athens Philharmonia Orchestra, National Theatre of Greece and the piano ensemble Piandaemonium. He has performed, among others, Schaunard (La bohème, Giacomo Puccini), Paolo (Simon Boccanegra, Giuseppe Verdi), Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), Falke (Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss), Escamillo (Carmen, Georges Bizet), Tonio (Pagliacci, Ruggero Leoncavallo), Alfio (Cavalleria rusticana, Pietro Mascagni), Scarpia (Tosca, Puccini), Requiem (Mozart), Don Pizarro (Fidelio, Ludwig van Beethoven), Thoas (Iphigenia in Tauris, Christoph Willibald Gluck), Edison (Les Éclairs, Philippe Hersant), Judge Turpin (Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim), Axion Esti (Mikis Theodorakis).

Marilena Striftombola
Soprano, born in Athens. She studied with soprano Martha Arapi and received her voice diploma with honours, first prize and a distinction for outstanding achievement. She has collaborated with GNO since 2013 in such productions as Beware! The Prince is Messy (Nikos Kypourgos), Die Zauberflöte (Mozart) as Papagena, The Murderess (Giorgos Koumendakis) as Delcharo and Krinio, The Emperor’s Nightingale (Lena Platonos) as the Nightingale, Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart) as Barbarina, La sonnambula (Bellini) as Lisa, Die Fledermaus (Strauss) as Adele, 7 Deaths of Maria Callas as Violetta Valéry, and Falstaff (Verdi) as Nannetta. She has appeared in major venues internationally, including Carnegie Hall and the Göttingen International Handel Festival, receiving enthusiastic reviews for her roles as Iris and Cupid in Handel’s Semele. She has won awards in international competitions and has recorded the operettas The Princess of Sazan, War Within a War, and The Cretan Girl by Spyridon Samaras.

Markos Kotsias
Pianist, graduate of the Philippos Nakas Conservatory (class of Alexandra Papastefanou, piano diploma with honours and first prize) and of the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart (Artistic Degree Programme in Piano [Künstlerische Ausbildung Klavier], class of André Marchand). In 2008, he was awarded first prize in the YAMAHA competition (YMFE). He has actively participated in masterclasses with leading pianists and has appeared in concert series both as a soloist and as a member of chamber music ensembles. From 2015, and for two years, he worked as a pianist for GNO, participating in productions as ballet répétiteur, orchestral keyboardist, and vocal coach. He has toured across Greece as part of the GNO production The Events (as pianist and onstage choir conductor). In 2022, he worked as orchestra pianist and vocal accompanist in productions of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (Carmina Burana, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, 2022) and the Athens Municipality Symphony Orchestra, as well as a soloist with the Danube Symphony Orchestra. He currently works as an accompanist at the Athens Conservatoire (class of Irini Karaianni) and in the operatic productions of the Municipality of Athens.

Fully accessible performances
The performances of the shadow puppet opera Karagiozis as Rigoletto will be fully accessible on the 28th & 30th December 2025, providing an inclusive audiovisual experience for all audiences. In this context, there will be designated seats for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing and use Greek Sign Language, places for those who rely on captions (CAPS) covering the entire audio channel, as well as seats for individuals who are blind or have limited access to the visual channel of communication and use the audio description (AD) service. Guide dogs for the visually impaired will also be permitted.
Audience members who wish to use the accessibility services are requested to purchase their tickets at the GNO Box Office, over the phone at 2130885700, or via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloak34edbab97693c84f98b48f8558d8541c').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addy34edbab97693c84f98b48f8558d8541c = 'boxoffice' + '@'; addy34edbab97693c84f98b48f8558d8541c = addy34edbab97693c84f98b48f8558d8541c + 'nationalopera' + '.' + 'gr'; var addy_text34edbab97693c84f98b48f8558d8541c = 'boxoffice' + '@' + 'nationalopera' + '.' + 'gr';document.getElementById('cloak34edbab97693c84f98b48f8558d8541c').innerHTML += ''+addy_text34edbab97693c84f98b48f8558d8541c+''; .
The full accessibility services for this production are included in the accessibility initiative cycle Altogether at the Opera, implemented with the support of Alpha Bank, as part of its Corporate Responsibility Initiative Culture for All.