About event
The masterpiece of the great Greek composer in poetry by Dionysius Solomos at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall on 22 & 23 March and at the Athens Concert Hall on 26 & 27 March Soloists: Marios Fragoulis, Tasos Apostolou, Charis Andrianos and narrator Maria Kavogianni.
The Symphony Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki is conducted by Anastasios Simeonidis.
The mixed choir of Thessaloniki and the choir of the municipality of Athens participate. Yannis Markopoulos‘ iconic work, “The Free Besieged”, a folk liturgy for symphony orchestra, mixed choir, lyric singers (tenor, baritone, basso-baritone) and narrator, is considered a landmark of modern Greek music. The audience will have the opportunity to enjoy “Free Besieged” live with the symphony orchestra and mixed choir of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and the choir of the Municipality of Athens, in their respective cities, under the musical direction of the always exciting
Anastasios Simeonidis. The exceptional actress
Maria Kavogianni takes over the
therole of the narrator, while three of the country’s most important lyric singers, the
Marios Fragoulis, the
Tasos Apostolou and
Charis Andrianos bring the poetry of Dionysios Solomos to life with their voices in the
22 & 23 March at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall and 26 & 27 March at the Athens Concert Hall . The great composer from Crete studied the “Free Besieged” and created the libretto by selecting parts from all the drafts of the poem, prose, verse and narrative parts. Markopoulos’ involvement with the work of our national poet lasted almost ten years, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, a period when the country was experiencing great political upheaval. The work took its final form, the “Folk Liturgy”, in 1975, when it was presented for the first time to the public at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where the composer was the guest of the late Professor Linos Politis, perhaps the most important student of Solomos and editor of the edition of his manuscripts in two volumes. “The Free Besieged” was released in 1977, with the performers Nikos Xylouris, Lakis Chalkias, Ilias Klonaridis and the narrator was the actress Irini Papa. The amateur mixed choir of Preveza participated, under the direction of George Kakitsi and an orchestra of 16 instruments. In the summer of 1978, Yannis Markopoulos conducted the work in front of an audience of twenty-two thousand people, who flooded the stands of the Panathinaikos stadium and greeted the new musical work and the entry of Solomos’ poetry into modern Greek music with enthusiasm. THE PARTS OF THE PROJECT
- Reflection – Introduction
- The Harama
- Ends of the tomb silence
- Old and handsome
- Rowing round all around
- Your son lily with dew
- My will rock
- Wherever there is darkness and darkness
- In the eyes and on the face
- (Before the exit) A skirt of dirt… (They kissed the earth)
- The Women
- Mother magnanimous
- Look at that earthquake gap
- But sun but invisible
- Arapias atti
- Temptation
- There are many ways to go
- My swooning breast
- Exodus – Way to rip the swords