One of the most important ballets in the history of dance, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring first premiered on 29 May 1913 at the Parisian Théâtre des Champs Elysées by Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet with a choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky and sets and costumes by Nikolai Rerikh. Stravinsky’s new sounds sounded particularly aggressive to the conservative audience of the time, but deeply affected contemporary composers.

Pina Bausch’s top Greek dancer, Daphnis Kokkinos, collaborated for the first time with the GNO Ballet and choreographed, also for the first time, The Rite of Spring, one of the works that have been uniquely associated with Pina Bausch. The choreography was given its world premiere in April 2019 by the Greek National Opera as part of the production From Russia with Love. Kokkinos drove the GNO Ballet to a high-intensity inward-looking interpretation and brought on stage elements of Pina Bausch’s choreographic language along with a brand new writing of his own that is full of sensitivity.

The Greek National Opera opens a new cycle of artistic programming. The first Online Festival titled EXIT: SPRING and curated by Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis spreads its wings into the digital world and invites us to a new viewing and listening experience. From 17th May to 30th June 2020, eleven new music, opera, operetta and music theatre video-performances created during the pandemic, as well as one recorded dance performance, come for free to our homes via www.nationalopera.gr, GNO’s Facebook page and GNO YouTube channel. All Festival video-performances revolve around the themes of the anticipation of spring, the rebirth of nature and the coming of the new. The Festival is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org] to enhance the Greek National Opera’s artistic outreach.

 Responding to the challenges of the time, the Greek National Opera develops new means of creation and presentation of its work beyond the ordinary. While experiencing a new reality, whose end none of us can predict, we turn the forced absence from our standard artistic activity to a new creativity beyond norms and limitations. The first Online Festival EXIT: SPRING aims at offering friends of the GNO in Greece and across the world, a “digital” exit to this year’s lost spring, through music, dance and lyric art video-performances.

The Greek National Opera would like to thank all the artists and artistic bodies, who granted their rights for free, in order to make sure that the broadcast of these video-performances of the festival will be free to the public, in this difficult time.