It is considered the oldest early music festival in the world. Starting in 1920, in the small town of Göttingen in Lower Saxony, the friends of composer Georg Friedrich Händel’s music ignited the 20th century’s interest in baroque opera with their musical event.

This year’s festival (18/5-29/5) with about 60 events took place titled Hellas! The focus was on Greece, whose mythology inspired countless works during the Baroque era, which spanned roughly from the end of the Renaissance in the 1600s to the 1750s.

For the artistic director of the festival Giorgos Petrou, however, it was extremely important that, alongside the works that refer to mythology, Greek creations throughout time were also presented, from the Renaissance composer Francis Leontaritis to the present day: “We had the Athens Chamber Choir at the festival, many Greek artists and works by creators such as Giorgos Kouroupos, Giorgos Koumentakis, Constantias Gourzis, Mikis Theodorakis and Nikos Skalkotas”.

The reception of Antiquity in the Baroque era

It is said that during the Renaissance, the Italians, wanting to revive the ancient Greek theater, created the opera, considering that the dialogues are also sung: “It is a given,” says George Petrou, “that the recitation was measured and sung. The way they did it couldn’t be historically accurate, but the idea is historically accurate.”

Giorgos Petrou is considered one of the leading chief musicians of baroque opera. Indicative, perhaps, of his contribution to the revival of forgotten works is that in the era of a large number of recordings in the field of opera, the only recording of Handel’s “Ariadne in Crete” that is released today is that of George Petros with Greek actors from the German record label MDG.

The festival program had something for everyone and wasn’t just for….suspects. Along with the presentation of Handel’s oratorios “Heracles” and “Semeli”, as well as lectures on the reception of Antiquity in the Baroque era, music lovers had the opportunity to see and hear jazz, new approaches to rebetika, even special concerts for families and children.

“Europe thought that all knowledge came from Greece”

The common denominator of all the events was the music of Georg Friedrich Händel. But who was the German composer, who was perhaps the first pan-European known composer? we asked Giorgos Petrou: “Handel was one of the world’s first internationally renowned musicians. He was a cosmopolitan, a creation of a funnel of different cultures: French, Italian, German, British and of course he was a theater composer, a businessman, one of the world’s greatest dramatists. That’s why his musical theater works are very modern. Someone who doesn’t know anything about opera can watch them, but even if they know a lot about opera they’ll find amazing elements in there to admire.”

Finally, we asked the artistic director to talk to us about the relationship between the world of the Baroque era and Antiquity, which was not only a source of inspiration: “The 18th century was Greek-centric, that is, education was always Greek-centric. From the Renaissance onwards Europe thought that all knowledge came from Greece. For the Germans, the direct line with Greek culture is a given. The Germans consider themselves children of Greek culture. There is a very great love and great admiration for Greece. And I am very glad that in from this festival we were able to show even a small part of the modern Greek musical production. And also to highlight the relationship of our history with the culture of the 18th century and especially the music of Handel.”

For the next three years George Petrou will be the artistic director of the Handel festival in Göttingen. With both this year’s and last year’s program, he raised the bar of expectations a lot. We can’t wait to see with which idea, which proposal will keep the interest in the imaginative world of the Baroque era tense for years to come.