JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF THE UGLY Comes to Bell Opera

3rd Bell Opera, the highly successful programme of inter-artistic and pedagogical initiatives for primary education schools, completes its fifth year of implementation with the music theatre performance, Journey to the Land of the Ugly, a subversive performance for children and adults, who dare to be themselves. Trevor Grahl created the musical composition, while Andriana Minou penned the libretto. Kyriaki Kountouri conducts the instrumental ensemble, and Theano Metaxa is responsible for the stage direction. The artistic team also includes soloist Sofia Ketetzian and actor Ilias Vogiatzidakis. The performance will take place in the Stavros Niarchos Hall of the Greek National Opera at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center on Sunday, 1 June 2025 at 18.30. 

The performance is the artistic outcome of the educational program 3rd Bell Opera, which is being implemented for the fifth consecutive year with the generous sponsorship of Piraeus Bank. The support of the educational program falls within the framework of the bank’s multifaceted Corporate Responsibility initiative “Equall – For a Society of Equal People,” and more specifically, under the pillar dedicated to the New Generation.

Over two hundred students from eleven primary schools in Attica will take the stage and transport us to a surreal… shapeless destination, where acceptance, solidarity, and equality play the leading role. The journey will begin in a strange world called Tetragonia, where emotions and deviations have been eliminated in the name of normalcy and uniformity. Within this dull environment, three children who do not conform to the rules of this world will embark on a quest to find the Other – the unpredictable, the humorous, the authentic.

The performance attempts a profound confrontation with the concepts of the “normal” and the “ugly” (which signifies lacking form/shape), while humorously and imaginatively raising topical questions about stereotypes and prejudices. The Journey to the Land of the Ugly is a stage experience based on free personal expression and interaction. As the director, Theano Metaxa, notes: “Our intention is to create a space of freedom, where every voice and every body has enough room to exist as they are, with their imperfections and moments of embarrassment. We do not constantly try to synchronize with each other, but to co-exist. We want to leave room for the unfamiliar and for spontaneous expression.”

The musical composition is structured around a dialogue between contrasts, and, in this way, serves as a dramaturgical mirror of the action.  Composer Trevor Grahl explains: “I wanted to fill the work with a variety of styles and musical approaches. In Tetragonia, we hear a cold, conformist atmosphere. On the contrary, in the Land of the Ugly, we hear fluidity and emotional liberation…” The work’s imaginative music is enriched by sounds, soundscapes, and musical motifs that emerged from the students during the educational programme. As the composer himself remarks, “I invited the children to participate as co-composers of the work. It is wonderful when, as a composer, you don’t need to come up with all the ideas yourself.”

The schools that participated in the programme from October 2024 to May 2025 were the following: 1st Special Primary School of Peristeri, 1st Experimental Primary School of Chalandri, 10th Primary School of Chaidari, 2nd  Primary School of Egaleo “Nikos Gatsos”, 29th Primary School of Athens “Nikos Gatsos”, 4th Primary School of Peristeri, 54th Primary School of Piraeus, 7th Primary School of Glyfada,  8th Primary School of Dafni, 85th Primary School of Athens, and the 9th Primary School of Glyfada.