Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, one of the greatest works of the world's music literature, will be staged for the first time in Greece, with local musicians and the Greek National Opera Orchestra and Chorus, from January 21, at the Athens Concert hall. Conducted by GNO Artistic Director Myron Michailidis, and directed by Yannis Kokkos, this pivotal romantic masterpiece is a major oeuvre - full of bursting emotions - and the novelties in its harmonic structure changed the course of music.

M U S I C

Acclaimed Greek composer Evanthia Reboutsika is in concert at the Gazarte Live Stage. For a total of four appearances beginning on January 17 (and then 11/2 14/3, 4/4), Reboutsika will transport the audience with her melodies from the busy streets of Istanbul, to dreamy Paris, and from there to a moonlit desert. This musical journey will include excerpts from award-winning soundtracks such as A Touch of Spice, the Babam ve oglum and Ulak; compositions from her most recent work on the film Birleşen Gönüller, as well as her compositions for the theater, such as Autumn History and Cyrano de Bergerac.

E X H I B I T I O N S

The National Archaeological Museum inaugurated on Monday 13, a new series of exhibitions, the Invisible Museum, which seeks to bring objects out of storage into the public eye, one by one or several objects at a time. A Mycenaean-era gold stamp ring dating to the 15th century BC is the highlight of the current exhibition; the exquisite Ring of Theseus, engraved with the image of the Minoan ritual of bull-leaping, was found in the 1950s in earth discarded at Anafiotika, the oldest part of Athens, while the first Acropolis museum was being constructed. It will be replaced after two months by a luxurious sarcophagus of a sacred Egyptian cat.

A great photographic tribute to the city of Athens, on the occasion of 180 years since its proclamation as the capital of the Greek State, is taking place at the Herakleidon Museum, running until the end of January. The exhibition titled   Metamorphoses of Athens – A Photographic Itinerary 1839 - 1950 features constant transformations of the urban landscape of the city of Athens. Curated by art historian Haris Giakoumis, it includes more than 130 authentic photographs depicting major public neoclassical buildings, street scenes, hills and the historical landscape of Athens.