The history
Greece is a case particularly worthy of attention within the panorama of Federico García Lorca’s worldwide reception as he has been repeatedly acknowledged as the most translated and performed foreign writer in Greece. It is also claimed that the country in which his work has been set to music the most is Greece.
Lorca’s presence in Greece has remained uninterrupted since his first appearance and remains current, with new translations, rewritings, adaptations, and staging’s of his plays continuously being produced. Lorca has also spurred a wide range of creative responses inspired by his life and death such as essays, music, poetry, and dramas. He has also stimulated debates over aesthetic, literary, cultural, ideological and political issues, and has thus become indissolubly bound to the Greek cultural environment both as a Greek and a Spanish icon.
The approach
The proposed project focuses on the way Greek artists have been influenced by Lorca not only in the past but also in the present years. Thus, the project aims to transfer to the public the way Greek musicians perceive and play the music that Lorca’s poems inspired famous Greek composers. In a few words, how Lorca’s poems go beyond borders and inspire nations!
The project is adapted for guitar and symphony orchestra.
The production
The “Tree F. G. Lorca” is an olive tree, with its roots deep in the bloody soil of the Spanish countryside. The poet as a person with his strong temperament, the music he composed and his texts that act like a knife and balm for the public, can be considered as a starting point of food for thoughts of the future generations – is likened to a beautiful and strong trunk. The correlation of the Spanish Civil War with the global references to the Greek martyrs of art and ideology, the translations and compositions of his poems and everything that he inspired other creators to do, are the branches of this tree.
The musical performance “The Tree F. G. Lorca” is the result of the cooperation of the excellent Greek singer Kaliopi Vetta with the composer and renowned guitarist Manolis Androulidakis.
It includes 13 songs, in its immense majority with poems of Lorca, with excellent translations and compositions of the most important Greek creators, as well as the poem by the Chilean poet Jaime Svart “Un arbor llamado Lorca” which is set to music by Manolis Androulidakis. The phonetic perfection of Kalliopi Vetta and the high level of performance and mastery of the guitar by Manolis Androulidakis on which the orchestration is based will offer to the public the bittersweet fruits of the “Tree F. G. Lorca” ” always at the service of the Art of the Poet.
The Program
– Mikis Theodorakis- F. G. Lorca: the seven songs from “Romancero gitano” for guitar, soprano, strings and percussion, arranged by Manolis Androulidakis.
– Christos Leontis – F. G. Lorca: Three Songs from “Oh! Amor!” for guitar, soprano, and orchestra.
– Manolis Androulidakis-Jaime Svart: “Un arboll llamado Lorca – the song”, for guitar, soprano, choir and orchestra.
– Federico Garcia Lorca: “Anda Jaleo” from Canciones Espanolas Antiguas for guitar, soprano, choir and orchestra.
– Federico Garcia Lorca: “Sevillanas del siglo XVIII” from Canciones Espanolas Antiguas for guitar, soprano, choir and orchestra.
