ATHENS – Major works by Greek composers inspired by the work and personality of Nikos Kazantzakis are being presented today (October 15) by the Greek National Opera (GNO), with its Orchestra, in a special concert at the renowned Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage of Carnegia Hall in Manhattan.
(TNH Interview With GNO Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis)
Titled ‘Nikos Kazantzakis: An Odyssey in Music’, the GNO will present New York audiences with a panorama of Greek art music featuring emblematic works by Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, Nikos Skalkottas, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Giorgos Koumendakis.
Conducting is the internationally acclaimed Greek conductor and music director of Austria’s Graz Opera, Vassilis Christopoulos. Performing are the internationally recognized mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili and Greek soprano Maria Kostraki. The GNO Orchestra and the Manos Hadjidakis Ensemble will be performing.
Nikos Kazantzakis – the most widely translated Greek author worldwide – constitutes one of the most enduring and fruitful sources of inspiration for Greek musical creation in the 20th and 21st centuries. Through music and cinema, his work has traveled to the ends of the Earth, making him one of the most recognizable literary figures worldwide. Works such as ‘Zorba the Greek’, ‘Captain Michalis’, ‘Christ Recrucified’, and ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, have carried Greek culture to the far reaches of the world.
His work, deeply philosophical and tragic, yet at the same time intensely rooted in popular life and lived experience, touches on crucial questions of freedom, fate, faith, and human transcendence. The poetic and dramatic power of his writing attracted leading Greek composers, who attempted, through their musical settings, to convey in musical language the intensity, reflection, and existential pulse of the Kazantzakian universe. His indirect contribution to the musical repertoire encompasses at least five different genres: symphonic music, opera, ballet, and music for theater and cinema. The musical works that have drawn inspiration from Kazantzakis function not simply as musical renditions of the texts, but as creative dialogues between literature and music, contributing decisively to the formation of modern Greek musical and, more broadly, artistic identity.
The program to be presented at Carnegie Hall, creates a unique musical bridge connecting different generations of Greek composers. Despite their different aesthetic and artistic paths, all the composers were deeply influenced by the intellectual and spiritual world of Nikos Kazantzakis and the island of Crete – whether as a place of origin, a heritage, or a symbolic reference.
Kazantzakis’ novel ‘Captain Michalis’ constituted an important source of inspiration for Hadjidakis (1925-1994), who in 1966 composed the music for the theatrical adaptation of the same name. The Kazantzakian themes of freedom, sacrifice, and inner conflict are transformed in Hadjidakis’ music into a lyrical and existential commentary rather than an epic narrative. The music illuminates the hero’s inner world and engages substantively with Kazantzakis’ words, offering an independent artistic reading of the work. The work will be performed by soprano Maria Kostraki, accompanied by the Manos Hadjidakis Ensemble.
The most recognizable musical embodiment of Nikos Kazantzakis worldwide is undoubtedly Theodorakis’ (1925-2021) Zorba. Through the music for Michel Cacoyannis’ film adaptation of the novel Zorba the Greek, Theodorakis gave the hero a musical identity of his own, his own voice, which, particularly through the famous ‘Zorba’s Dance’, became identified internationally with the Greek spirit. The celebrated mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili performs.
In his symphonic work ‘Amor Fati’ – Love of Fate (2007), Koumendakis (born 1959) draws inspiration from Kazantzakis’ philosophy and spirit. He approaches Cretan music and its characteristic ‘kontylies’ through an abstract orchestral idiom, without using traditional musical instruments. Written for the fiftieth anniversary of the author’s death, Amor Fati – as its title suggests – captures the Kazantzakian acceptance of fate and the composer’s deep relationship with Cretan musical identity. Amor Fati will receive its American premiere at this concert.
The concert will also feature two distinctive works of Greek art music inspired by the centuries-long history and folk culture of Crete, the island that decisively influenced Kazantzakis.
Skalkottas’ (1904-1949) three ‘Cretan Dances’ draw inspiration from Crete and Cretan music. Skalkottas, a leading figure in modern Greek music, wrote works ranging from the National School and neoclassicism to atonality and twelve-tone composition. His most emblematic work, the ‘36 Greek Dances’, is based on folk songs and traditional tunes from throughout Greece, emphasizing their distinctive musical characteristics and highlighting the diversity of the Greek landscape.
Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960), enchanted by Cretan culture, wrote ‘Cretan Feast’ in 1919. The foremost Greek conductor of the 20th century, who had a friendship with Kazantzakis, began his international career with the Berlin Philharmonic and enjoyed a distinguished career in America – where, among other positions, he served as music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic – which performed at Carnegie Hall. ‘Cretan Feast’ is one of his first noteworthy youthful works for piano, which Skalkottas later orchestrated.
The concert at Carnegie Hall takes place as part of the Greek National Opera’s international outreach, following its exceptionally successful tours in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa, and is held under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in New York and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
The concert is made possible through the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s (SNF) grant to strengthen the GNO’s international artistic outreach and forms part of the events marking thirty years of the SNF’s philanthropic activity.
