Vasilis Christopoulos to Lead Greek National Opera at Carnegie Hall

Conductor Vasilis Christopoulos will lead the Greek National Opera at Carnegie Hall, the company's New York debut. He calls it "the first time a Greek orchestra will appear in this temple for classical music."

The program honors author Nikos Kazantzakis through music from Mikis Theodorakis' "Zorbas," Manos Hadjidakis' "Captain Mihalis," and Dimitri Mitropoulos' "Cretan Feast." Soloists Anita Rachvelishvili and Maria Kostraki join him on stage.

What does Carnegie mean for this company?

"This is a historic moment for all of us," Christopoulos said in an OperaWire interview. "The Carnegie Hall is not just another concert hall, it is a legendary venue in one of the world's greatest cities, very far from Greece."

Christopoulos described his bond with GNO as familial: "The Greek National Opera is my musical family!" That relationship stretches back to November 1999, when he stepped in at age 24 for a "Tosca" performance without rehearsal at the company's old theater. Eighteen years later, in 2017, he led GNO's first "Elektra," inaugurating the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre in Athens.

How is the Kazantzakis program built?

Kazantzakis, Christopoulos said, "describes sometimes very accurately and harshly the Greek, and in particular the Cretan soul." He argued that the novelist's own "linguistic style... cannot really be translated."

The Carnegie program is, in his words, "a caleidoscope of Greek music inspired by Kazantzakis's universe." Hadjidakis's "Captain Mihalis" songs are "practically their own genre, something between rembetiko (a Greek urban folk-blues tradition born in port-town cafés) and rock ballads." Theodorakis's "Zorbas," by contrast, writes "beautiful, simple, folk-like melodies accompanied by a big symphony orchestra."

What challenge faces the soloists?

Both Rachvelishvili and Kostraki are trained opera singers, but this program pulls them outside the standard house repertoire (the working canon any opera company keeps in active rotation). "There is a challenge for classically trained opera singers to perform these compositions in the right style," Christopoulos said. "On top of that, Anita will sing in Greek, which is no easy feature!"

How did Christopoulos become a conductor?

The profession arrived through his father, the principal oboist (lead oboe, the instrument's first-chair player in an orchestra) at the Radio Symphony Orchestra and later the Athens State Orchestra. "I would sit on the floor between him and the solo flutist and observe the conductors during rehearsals," Christopoulos said. "I was absolutely fascinated by the magic of movements which transformed into sound."

Mitropoulos, whose "Cretan Feast" closes the Carnegie program, ranks among his formative influences. "An extremely passionate conductor from the mountains of Arcadia," Christopoulos said, "who became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic" — the orchestra's principal conductor and chief artistic leader.

Christopoulos has held the post of Chief Conductor at Graz Opera since September 2023.

What should audiences actually hear?

Range, Christopoulos said: "I believe the audience will be amazed at how many different colours a single concert can offer." For Greek music on the international circuit, the practical question is whether a debut at Carnegie can translate into a recurring touring slot. Christopoulos's bet, programming Kazantzakis rather than standard Italian fare, is that the country's identity travels as music — not just as marketing copy.