Utopia hidden in the body of the city

Andreas Maratos

Maratos A., Utopia hidden in the body of the city – The musical world of Mikis Theodorakis and his era, Ianos, Athens, 2014.
Language | Greek.

A. Maratos is a painter and doctor of philosophy.

This book is an interpretation of Mikis Theodorakis’ musical work against the backdrop of the evolution of the Greek city, internal migration, the degeneration and disappearance of the neighbourhood, and the dominance of block of flats. Several passages in the book make specific reference to Maria Farantouri.

Maria Farantouri would become his ideal interpreter. He himself would describe her as his “priestess,” the ambassador of his musical “universe” throughout the world. If Bithikotsis associated his voice with the art-folk songs of the 1960s, Farantouri would become the enduring, profound voice of his soul and his visions. Powerful, redemptive, and otherworldly. From the moment they met (in 1963), she would serve his entire oeuvre with devotion —despite its internal differentiations— and identify with him. She approached it with admirable interpretive simplicity and balance, stamping it with her rare timbre and enhancing its inherent dynamism over time. This was not only due to the range of her vocal abilities, but also because of a steady, almost Brechtian interpretative detachment that gives the result a transcendent, almost priestly feel, as if drawing material from the depths of time, history, and emotions. That is why he will very quickly dedicate a cycle of six songs of love and dreams to her, the Farantouri Cycle, from which I mention “Dream is smoke” (On the balcony of the night) set to lyrics by Nikos Gatsos, because it defines a unique musical and poetic landscape-body of loss and separation.