The opera GAIA-24. Opera del Mondo, created by the Ukrainian laboratory Opera Aperta, has been named a laureate of the international contemporary music theatre competition Music Theatre Now. An international jury selected the work by Ukrainian composers Roman Hryhoriv and Illia Razumeiko from over 200 submissions worldwide, placing it among the seven most outstanding projects of the 2023–2025 season.
The award ceremony will take place in May 2026 at the O. Festival in Rotterdam. Meanwhile, Opera Aperta is working on its next production, Modraniht. Songs of Winter War, which is scheduled for a world premiere on May 10 in Kyiv during the closing of the KЇ Fest.
The opera explores humanity’s destructive impact on the environment through the lens of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Its central theme is the ecocide caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant by Russian forces in June 2023. Drawing on the ideas of French philosopher Bruno Latour, the creators draw parallels between the war in Ukraine and humanity’s broader global war against nature.
To convey the ecological crisis, the opera employs innovative techniques involving voice, body, and spatial performance. Visual elements are also central, featuring video footage shot in the fall of 2023 on Khortytsia Island. The materials document the environmental aftermath of the disaster while simultaneously showing the slow return of lands previously submerged under an artificial reservoir to their natural state.
The Music Theatre Now competition is organized by the International Theatre Institute and the Rotterdam Opera Festival and takes place every three years. Typically, the contest receives over 500 submissions from more than 50 countries.
