Stavros Niarchos Hall

The Stavros Niarchos Hall is the main auditorium of the Greek National Opera and its principal stage for opera and ballet. It is part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Kallithea, in southern Athens. Designed by Renzo Piano and funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the complex was completed in 2016 and handed over to the Greek state on 23 February 2017; it also houses the National Library and a large park. Piano made the building rise out of an artificial hill, with a canopy carrying a solar field on thin steel columns above the opera house. The hall seats around 1,400, alongside the smaller Alternative Stage. Performances began in spring 2017. Before that the company, founded in 1939, played at the Olympia Theatre on Akadimias Street; in summer it performs at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.