On Ukraine’s Independence Day, August 24, the 10th anniversary of the International Arts Festival “Velvet Season at the Odesa Opera – 2025” will open and run until September 14, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine reports.
The program includes premieres, masterpieces of opera and ballet classics, contemporary productions, and gala concerts.
On the opening day, the audience will see Mykola Lysenko’s opera “Natalka Poltavka” in a new stage version.
As part of the festival, a unique printed edition titled “Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater: Heritage, Soul, Citadel” will be presented. The book will serve as an artistic testimony to the theater’s centuries-old history, its spiritual strength, and its significant role in the cultural space of Ukraine and the world.
The festival will conclude in the Hellenic Republic with Adolphe Adam’s ballet “Giselle,” performed by leading artists of the Odessa Opera. This symbolic step is a tribute to the unity of cultures and the echo of ancient aesthetics in the European opera tradition.
