The special performance ‘This is Britten’, based on two iconic song cycles by Benjamin Britten based on poems by William Blake and John Dunne, is coming to the reception area of ​​the National Library of Greece at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center on Saturday 30 September 2023 at 21.00, as part of the Booklover’s Point series of events of the 3rd Lyrical South Festival.

The show is conceived and directed by Themeli Glynatsis, while the song cycles are performed by the internationally acclaimed baritone Dimitris Platanias and the distinguished and experienced tenor Christos Kehris. The first cycle of songs is based on the poetry of the “heretic” William Blake, while the second cycle is based on the Sacred Sonnets of the Renaissance poet John Dunn, which the composer wrote after his visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

The director Themelis Glynatsis, in collaboration with the video designers Chrysoula Korovesis and Mario Gambierakis, create a special visual environment, specially designed for the reception area of ​​the National Library of Greece at the SNFCC, which will frame the interpretation of Dimitris Platanias in the William Blake cycle , and Christos Kehris in the John Dunn cycle. Sofia Tamvakopoulou will accompany them on the piano.

This stage installation aims to convey to the public, both musically and scenically, the special emotional and philosophical charge of these two cycles, which explore the personal despair of both the poets and the composer, the tormenting religious doubt, but also the persistent search for redemption and freedom. In the end, despite the pervasive melancholy they emit, these two circles function as a testimony of human resistance against existential compromise, the violence of the world and death.

Entry for the public is free with tickets, which will be distributed from Wednesday 27 September 2023, at 12.00, exclusively through ticket services.

The Booklover’s Point series of events of the Lyrikos Notos Festival is a co-organization of the National Opera and the Association of Municipalities of South Attica -Kallithea, Palaio Faliro, Alimos- in collaboration with the National Library of Greece. Lyrikos Notos Festival is an organization of the National Opera, with co-financing from the European Union through the Association of Municipalities of South Attica, within the framework of the Attica PEP.