Photo Credit: AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis

On March 25th, Greece celebrates what is called the country’s day of independence, or the Celebration of the Greek Revolution of 1821. On this day, Greece successfully liberated itself from Ottoman occupation in the year of 1830 and by 1832, the borders of Greece were solidified. For the 2021 bicentennial of their liberation, the Greek National Opera (GNO) put together ten free days of opera and ballet performances, among the offerings being Paolo Carrer’s ‘Despo,’ premiered in 1882 based on the real-life resistance fighter, Despo Botsi.

And while opera’s roots in the Greek dramaturgical tradition is well understood and well researched, I wish to bring attention to Greece’s rich tradition of operatic composition. Some of the most widely-known composers with Greek roots like Iannis Xenakis, Mikis Theodorakis, and Haris Vrondos, all have interacted with the operatic form, although for Xenakis, his response was wholly apathetic. Nevertheless, it can be said opera has a key place in the classical music culture of Greece and it is this form I wish to explore in more depth. The GNO was first founded in 1939, Maria Callas actually joining the year after, and was and remains a key player in opera’s life in the country. The country boasts quite a number of venues, including the beautiful Apollon Theater located on the island of Syros.

Among the many composers from Greece who’ve composed operas across the country’s history, the Romantic 19th century contains much of Greece’s most decided work towards fabricating the Greek operatic voice. Much of the work began in the century’s second half with those like Carrer and colleagues like Spyridon Xyndas (1812-1896) spearheading much of the work to create an operatic style befitting the Grecian taste. Much of this work included grappling with balancing between Italian tendencies, how to marry poetry and music, and the incorporation of folk music influences. By the century’s end, the task was given over to a new generation spearheaded by those like Spyridon Samaras (1816-1917). Creating 12 operas, among the most celebrated being ‘Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle‘ (1905), Samaras blended Modernist and late-Romantic trends from those like Wagner, Strauss, and Gounod.

Shortly thereafter, the next generation began. This time spearheaded by Manolis Kalomiris (1883-1962), this wave of Greek opera revisited the 19th century aesthetic vocabularies and foregrounded high Romanticism, all but shifting away from usage of traditional music for a more neutrally cosmopolitan alternative. This marks the birth of what is called the Greek ‘national school,’ although a relative disagreement quickly ensued in how much Greek culture was to be utilized vs. European-based alternatives. Around the turn of the century, Greece began a wave of light music, including most particularly the operettas from composers like Theophrastos Sakellaridis (1883-1950).

And yet, Carrer’s Romantic legacy lived on in innovators like Titos Xirellis (1900/3-1985), whose opera, ‘Spring Fairytale‘ (1975) began a new age of Greek opera where folk culture was again made an important part of the national style. Later still was the birth of yet another generation who left 19th-century Romanticism, and the entire project of the Ionian School, for a 20th-century contemporary. This new wave is epitomized in the operatic works from great composers like Dimitri Terzakis (1939-), Michalis Travlos (1950-), and Georges Aperghis (1945-).

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