Description

Four colorful creatures. Four voices. Four invocations for today’s world.

The Beasties of the apocalypse is a poetic, darkly playful animated film about a world in transformation, based on the eponymous cycle for children’s choir by Kharálampos Goyós, with lyrics by Foivos Dousos. The work was commissioned by the Greek National Opera for the 2nd Sacred Music Festival and was first presented in 2024 by the GNO Children’s Choir under the musical direction of Konstantina Pitsiakou.

The four imaginary creatures of the piece — the Red Lizard, the Green Mouse, the Yellow Cricket, and the Black Pony — do not tell a story: they are shapes and colors, sounds and rhythms. Through their voices, they give form and substance to four contemporary forces that permeate and define our lives: the ecological crisis, the biogenetic revolution, economic imbalance, and social collapse.

Like an unusual “godless prayer,” the work borrows the gesture of worship in order to transform restless thoughts into song and image, speaking,  without comforting myths, of the anxieties and contradictions of the present. The children’s voices do not explain or narrate; they observe, repeat, insist.

Effie Pappa’s cinematic adaptation blends live action and animation, creating a hybrid, dreamlike, and visually striking universe, where children’s voices converse with images of intensity, irony, and subtle humor. A ritualistic, contemporary “tetramorph,” somewhere between fairy tale and allegory, addressed equally to children and adults, inviting listening, observation, and reflection.

Creative team – Cast

Music: Kharálampos Goyós
Text & lyrics: Foivos Dousos
Musical director: Konstantina Pitsiakou
Film & animation director: Effie Pappa

Performers

Johannes Necronymus: Simeon Tsakiris

Children’s Chorus of the Greek National Opera

Anmar-Ibrahim-Jasim-Mohammed Al Ghanimi, Myrto Anagnostopoulou,* Antigoni Apostolopoulou, Zoe-Georgia Emmanouil-Moraitou,* Iasonas Fragopoulos, Melina Georganta, Argyri-Eleni-Zeaki Glynia,* Ioanna-Varvara-Seleni Glynia,* Christina Karantakou, Antonia Katsiki, Irini Konstantopoulou,* Sotiris Kosmas,* Maria-Anna Koursoumi, Christina Koveou, Alkinoos Kypriotis, Magdalini Lambrou, Marios Mataragas, Ilia-Zoe Mavrokefalou, Maria Moulakaki, Sophia Natsiou, Zoe Panagiotopoulou,* Sophia Panou, Egli-Alexandra Papadiamanti, Ioanna Papalexi, Elissavet Papamarkou, Despina Papastamou,* Anna Parthenidi, Panayotis Perdikis, Tommaso-Filippos Plevrakis, Katerina Prigkopoulou, Sophia Rantavella, Irini Samouchou, Antonis Sinanoglou, Vassiliki Sinanoglou, Olga Sofogianni, Artemis Sopili-Köksal, Angelos Tsalikis, Kalliopi Tzanidaki, Yasemi Tzemopoulou, Stavros-Taxiarchis Tzempelikos-Volonakis, Dimitra Vassilakopoulou, Natalia-Chryssoula Vassou, Sophia Zachopoulou, Niovi Zizi, Stavroula Zioura

* Former members of the GNO Children’s Chorus specially invited for this recording

GNO Children’s Chorus music coach & chorus mistress: Konstantina Pitsiakou

Assistant music coach: Marilena Souri
GNO Children’s Chorus co-ordinator: Christina Ntemou

Photos & videos

Photos