A special concert – dedicated to the iconic work “A Hostage” by the leading Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis and the political songs of the great American composer Mark Blitstein – comes to the Alternative Stage of the National Opera, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center on Sunday, March 26, 2023, at 19.30, as part of the three-year cycle of Mikis Theodorakis.

The diverse visions of two composers with the revolutionary drive as a common reference, Mikis Theodorakis and Mark Blitstein (whose work is presented for the first time by National Opera), highlights in the March 26th concert the artistically restless duet of the mezzo-soprano Anastasia Kotsalis and the accordionist Konstantinos Zigeridis, accompanied on this occasion by the pianist Giorgos Konstantinou.

The concert program brings together a selection of unique songs by two composers who, although they followed different musical paths, are united by a common passion for political musical theatre. Brecht, Anglo-Saxon humor, sarcasm, tenderness as well as satirical lyrics commenting with the glove on socio-political struggles create unexpected bridges between their works.

The political musical theater in Greece it was stamped by his ergography Miki Theodorakis, who made his mark already at the beginning of the 60s when, in the heart of the Cold War period, he decided to compose for Leonidas Triviza’s troupe the songs of the completely contemporary play A Hostage by the Irish poet Brendan Bean, inspired by the liberation struggle of the Irish people against the British. It is the first time that Theodorakis sets an Anglo-Saxon poet to music, in a translation by Vassilis Rotas that coincides with the first English version of the work. Legendary songs from this work, such as the famous “Laughing Child”, were associated early on with political struggles, initially in the wake of the assassination of Grigoris Lambrakis and later during the dictatorship, and are recognized to this day as timeless symbols of social militancy.

At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, with the breath of McCarthyian dystopia still hot on his back, the most pro-Soviet of American scholarly composers (at least by US standards) Mark Blitstein he lays down his own vision of political musical theatre, shaping a distinct language with works such as Ruben Ruben and Sacco and Vacchetti.

The program of this particular concert looks for points of contact between these idiosyncratic versions of Greek and American political musical theater by mixing the songs of Theodorakis with rare excerpts of works in lyrics and music by the multi-talented Blitstein (such as Parade, Negative Response, Golubchik, Juno), but and pieces by American pioneer Milton Babbitt and Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, whose Quintet Opera Blitzstein adapted for American musical theater in the 1950s, in a performance that was widely used even in pop versions by Bobby Darin and Louis Armstrong.

A special place among the works of the concert is occupied by Blitzstein’s legendary musical theater piece The Cradle Will Shake [The Cradle Will Rock, 1937], an aggressive anti-capitalist allegory whose premiere, amid labor unrest and directed by the twenty-two-year-old Orson Welles, was one of the biggest theatrical scandals of the 1930s. The play’s tumultuous premiere later served as the basis for Welles’ autobiographical screenplay of the same name, as well as the Tim Robbins film The Broadway Rebels (1999).

Concert • Mikis Theodorakis Circle

Mikis Theodorakis: A hostage / Mark Blitstein: Political songs

Sunday, March 26, 2023

Start time: 19.30

Alternative Stage of the National Opera

Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC)

Works by Mikis Theodorakis, Mark Blitzstein, Milton Babbitt, Kurt Weill

Anastasia Kotsali, mezzo-soprano

George Konstantinou piano

Konstantinos Zigeridis accordion

Ticket prices: €12, €15 • Student, children: €10

Presale:

ELS funds at SNFCC (2130885700, daily 9.00-21.00)

www.ticketservices.gr

Group bookings: 2130885742