On the night of September 11, the watches for the “s” of Greek song Gregory Bithikotsi on the occasion of the presentation of Anna Bithikotsi’s new book “And Father and Myth … Gregory Bithikotsis, 1922-2005” Metaxas-Crontira (Aunt Lena) as part of the 53rd Book Festival held at the Pedion Areos.

Early and under the sounds of songs performed by her father, the author was in the double stand of “Eighth” 157-158 where she signed her book, in anonymous and branded, gathering there.

It is a book testimony of life for herself, dedicated to “Gregory, Theocles (her mother) and her spiritual father Mikis Theodorakis,” she said. A tender experiential recording that starts from her childhood in their poor house in Peristeri where “the children’s room was moist and so the bed did not rest on the pink wall with swallows … Ah our house had a soul too.”

In the presentation that followed with the public filling the seats and there are plenty of upright, not so common in the presentations at the Book Festival, Maria Farantouri’s emotionally charged letter was read that due to her concert, though she did not want to be there.

Maria Farantouri letter

“I am glad that Gregory’s beloved daughter and great writer, Anna Bithikotsis, testifies with respect and love to her book entitled” And Father and Myth “her experiential and historical memories; The pages of the book do not just aspire to highlight the myth of Bithikotsis, with whom I had the pleasure of working together, but also to record her own writing perspective; to present the man behind the artist, as she lived and tried to capture her with her The heroine of Theocles.
Maria Farantouri ”.

The presentation coordinator was the journalist Nikos Thrasivoulou who first gave the speech to the renowned director and actor Sotiris Hatzakis who read a chimney letter from Mikis Theodorakis to Anna Bithikotsis and excerpts from the book.

Great actress Maria Tzobanakis then said, among other things, that “Gregory Bithikotsis is one of the followers of the great nation’s chants”, citing the words of the great lyricist Dimitris Christodoulou, who was inextricably tied up by his work. Book saying that “Anna writes about her father beyond the magnitude of her artistic value.”

It was then his turn of one of the leading journalists Pavlos Tsima, who said, among other things, that “Gregory Bithikotsis demanded at the time of Columbia’s star from the record label to make a record with songs by Mark Vamvakaris as it was a time. He went and met Rebetius in the poor house he was staying with and he gave him a new song, beyond those who was told by the Marco that Bithikotsis chose to sing on the album, which was your scanning. After the release of the album, Bithikotsis visited Marco again to give him 100,000 drachmas in a move of gratitude. Then Mark returned and gave him a tip: “Don’t eat your money and you become a brain like us. One of the stories that has made Gregory Bithikotsis myth. “

He also mentioned the words of Stavros Xarhakos who has described Bithikotsis: “The Singer of the Post -War Enlightenment”, as his voice is a bridge of the Byzantine hymns with folk song, but also a “bridge of the song”.

The author of this attractive edition who, in addition to experiential references and testimonies to the Laopilian performer, also contains entries in the press from 1963 to 2005, but also a rare photographic family archive from Anna Bithikotssi’s collection, described her own life: Gregory, your own Bithikotsis. I respect our moments, as I experienced them, sometimes through my childhood eyes and sometimes through the eyes of adolescence and maturity. I remember the timeline of his bright work, the conditions under which his compositions were written and the compositions of our great poets and composers, which he traveled with his voice to immortality. The poem is filled with anecdotal photographic material from my personal archive, with press entries from 1963 to 2005 and with historical documents that outline Greek society, useful for the reader and the researcher. Through the awake heart of my mother, Theocles, the first partner of his life, his brothers and his friends, as well as our insurmountable composers, poets and classical performers, I deposit without sparing from Alpha to Omega their lives next to him. Through their memories come to light the unknown to us, their feelings and their reflections. I find the words he was telling me again! My memories, the performances of his soul behind the lights, the ones he did not see and applaud. Soul representations that fluttered in the skies of life we ​​joined. With a deep dip in my family’s life, I recall our own lives from the bottom of the past, turning time back and counting, wave of wave, his travels from the first to the last. “

Among the present feeling was caused by the presence of performer Costas Karalis, from his rare exits, while also distinguishing Manolis Rasoulis’ composer Petros Vagiopoulos, Popi Domazou the daughter of the late “General” Producers Marina Lachana and Alexis Vakis et al.

*Anna Bithikotsi’s book is released on everything, bookstore and electronically from “Eighth”