Homage to Mikis Theodorakis

Greece, Athens, Herod’s Atticus Odeon

4 July 2022, 21:00

Maria Farantouri, Mikis Theodorakis’ leading interpreter – “his priestess” according to his own statement – joins forces with the excellent baritone Tassis Christojannis and the significant conductor Miltos Logiadis in a solemn musical evening dedicated to the memory and the valuable legacy left by Mikis Theodorakis.

The first part presents parts of the iconic Canto General, set to the poetry by the Chilean Pablo Neruda, in the original orchestration of the work for a 15-member ensemble and two choirs – the ERT Choir and the Choir of the Municipality of Athens. The Canto General (General Song) by the Chilean Nobel Prize Winner is a poetic cosmogony of Latin America, a hymn to the land and its people exploited by external factors, a cry of protest against the oppression of peoples, an appeal to life, peace, freedom, to a new world bright and hopeful. Set to music by Mikis Theodorakis, it is transformed into a contemporary art composition, with constant changes in its rich melodic line, a polyrhythmic work, a multifaceted aesthetic creation. On the lips of Maria Farantouri and Petros Pandis (its first performers), it becomes a universal song of universal dimensions as it is presented to international audiences in the largest theatres in Europe, the United States, Latin America and Canada, where it is received with enthusiastic reviews. The rehearsals of the work in Paris in 1972 before Pablo Neruda and the concerts in Havana in 1979 and 1981 before Fidel Castro are also historic.

In the second part of the concert, Maria Farantouri and Tasis Christogiannis, always under the baton of Miltos Logiadis, perform songs by Theodorakis from his well-known and beloved song cycles, arranged, now, by pianist Achilleas Gouastor.