Ukrainian opera GAIA-24 wins Music Theatre Now award
GAIA-24. Opera del Mondo, a Ukrainian opera created by Opera Aperta which explores the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, has won an award at the international Music Theatre Now competition.
Source: Ukrainska Pravda.Kultura
Details: The judges chose the work, by Ukrainian composers Roman Hryhoriv and Illia Razumeiko, from over 200 entries from around the world. The opera was included among the seven most outstanding music theatre productions globally for the 2023-2025 season.
Quote from the project's creators: "We are grateful to the jury for this recognition. Thanks to many years of support from several European festivals, independent contemporary Ukrainian opera, created by Ukrainian artists out of Ukrainian landscapes, stories, bodies and voices – opera that, paradoxically, is not needed in Ukraine – remains needed for the world and for Europe, and continues to exist in our laboratory in Kyiv."
Details: Work on GAIA-24. Opera del Mondo began after Russia destroyed the Kakhovka dam in 2023. Video footage for the opera was filmed on Khortytsia Island, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, in autumn 2023.
The opera premiered in Kyiv in May 2024. It was later staged at O. Festival in Rotterdam, Musiktheatertage Wien in Vienna, the 60th Venice Biennale, and the Schall&Rausch festival in Berlin. In 2025, GAIA-24 returned to Ukraine in a revised version.
The opera explores humanity's destructive impact on the environment through the lens of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "GAIA-24" refers to the ancient Greek Earth goddess Gaia, the mother of the Sky and all living things, and to the Gaia hypothesis, which sees the planet as a living self-regulating organism.
The production was created by the contemporary opera laboratory Opera Aperta and the proto produkciia agency. Three members of the team joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine during its development: co-producer Volodymyr Burkovets and sound engineers Andrii Nidzelskyi and Viacheslav Soboliev.
This is not the first time the team has addressed environmental tragedies in Ukraine. They previously worked on the opera Chornobyldorf, parts of which were also used in GAIA-24. Opera del Mondo. Opera Aperta also created the therapeutic performance Lullaby for Mariupol, an important work in the laboratory's repertoire. A new opera, Modraniht. Songs of winter war, is currently in preparation and will have its world premiere on 10 May at the closing of KЇ FEST.
The Music Theatre Now competition is organised by the International Theatre Institute and the Rotterdam Opera Festival. It is held every three years and recognises the most innovative and relevant projects in contemporary music theatre. The awards ceremony will take place in May in Rotterdam.
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