3 August 2026 – A Tribute to Bel Canto

Bel Canto—literally meaning “beautiful singing”—represents the golden age of operatic vocal art. It is distinguished by the extraordinary ability of the human voice to fully exploit its technical and expressive potential, conveying the widest possible range of human emotion through elegance, virtuosity and vocal refinement.

While many composers contributed to the development of the Bel Canto tradition, three remain its most celebrated exponents: Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti.

This special concert pays tribute to this remarkable musical legacy through a selection of celebrated arias and duets from some of the finest operas of the repertoire, including Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Pasquale, La Sonnambula, I Puritani, Guillaume Tell and many more.

Annie Fassea | Soprano

Greek-Scottish coloratura soprano Annie Fassea has established an impressive international career, appearing on some of Europe’s leading opera stages. During the current season she made her debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Hamburg State Opera and the Volksoper Vienna, performing the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). She also returned to the Greek National Opera as Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème.

Her operatic repertoire includes leading roles such as Violetta (La Traviata), Amina (La Sonnambula), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Ilia (Idomeneo), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Clorinda (La Cenerentola) and Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro), performed in productions across Europe.

As a concert soloist, she has performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 on numerous occasions, including a notable appearance at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis). Her symphonic repertoire also includes Mozart’s Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Brahms’ A German Requiem, in collaboration with orchestras in Greece, Cyprus and Romania.

She studied at the Athenaeum Conservatoire under Christina Giannakopoulou and was a member of the Greek National Opera’s Young Artists Programme. In 2019 she was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, enabling her to continue her studies in New York with renowned Metropolitan Opera bass Dimitri Kavrakos.

Annie Fassea has received awards and distinctions in several international competitions, including the Concours International de Belcanto Vincenzo Bellini (2024) and the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition (2023).

Georgios Iatrou | Baritone

Baritone Georgios Iatrou studied at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, the University of Music and Dance Cologne, and the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf.

He has collaborated with opera companies and theatres in Hamburg, Cologne, Dublin, Toronto, Bonn, Dortmund, Aachen, Avignon, Bergen, Saint-Étienne, Fribourg, Montepulciano, the Greek National Opera, and the Olympia Municipal Music Theatre “Maria Callas” in Athens. From 2015 onwards he was a member of the Aalto-Musiktheater Essen.

His extensive repertoire includes Figaro (The Barber of Seville), Valentin (Faust), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Marcelloand Schaunard (La Bohème), Gabriel von Eisenstein and Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), as well as the title roles in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Orff’s Prometheus, among many others.

He has appeared at major opera, Lied and theatre festivals, including the Leipzig Bach Festival, the Holland Festival, the Festival d’Avignon, the Athens Epidaurus Festival, and Romaeuropa Festival, while performing at prestigious venues such as the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Cologne Philharmonie, Philharmonie Essen, Grieg Hall (Bergen), the National Concert Hall of Ireland, and the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.

He also participated in the Bayreuth Festival for Young Artists and has received awards at several international vocal competitions in Düsseldorf, Riva del Garda, Milan and Luxembourg.

Dimitris Υakas | Piano

Born in Athens, Dimitris Giakas received his Piano Diploma from the National Conservatory of Greece, where he studied with Myrto Mavrikou.

He continued his studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, specialising in Piano, Chamber Music and Opera Coaching, before further developing his expertise in vocal accompaniment under the guidance of the legendary accompanist Dalton Baldwin.

Between 1982 and 1991 he served as pianist and répétiteur at the Paris Opera, and later at the Opéra National de Lyon, upon the invitation of its Music Director, Kent Nagano. During this period he also performed extensively with singers in Paris and at numerous festivals throughout France.

Since returning to Athens in 1990, he has maintained a long-standing collaboration with both the Greek National Opera and the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis). He regularly partners distinguished Greek and international singers in concerts throughout Greece and abroad, and is widely recognised as one of the country’s most respected collaborative pianists.