Canto General at Irodou Attikou Theatre

Great excitement. Had been building up for days.... And, as very rarely happens in life, the reality was beyond my expectations.

A combination of: my favourite theatre, my favourite Greek composer and the powerful voice of Maria Farandouri. Bliss...

(photograph by Peter Wilson)

The Irodou Attikou theatre was built during the second century A.D., financed by Irodes Attikos in memory of his wife. It is a semi-circular theatre, comprising 3 levels of marble tiers with only 2 levels surviving today, a radius of 38m and can seat around 5000 people.

It originally had a wooden roof, was partly destroyed during the third century A.D. and was restored in the 1950s.

Today the theatre is one of the many venues for the Athens Festival, a celebration of music, dance and theatre.

One of the album covers of Canto General

Mikis Theodorakis wrote the music to the poems of Pablo Neruda 40 years ago - Canto General has become the anthem of the dispossesed, the marginalised and the persecuted. It  tells of the plight of the South American people, first the persecution of the indigenous populations by the conquistadors and then by the various dictators that have plagued the region.

The composer and the poet met in 1964 and then met again in 1970 in Paris when Theodorakis was in self-exile from the military junta in Greece. Neruda invited Theodorakis to go to Chile to see for himself  how grounded the people were under the Allende regime. Allende invited them to his house. One of the things he said to Theodorakis was: 'Things are going really well. There is only one problem left, that of the military. I am going to solve the problem with the help of General Pinochet whom I trust. He is my man'. It makes you want to cry....

Another cover, in French, so I wonder if it is the original one.

Theodorakis and Neruda arranged for the piece to be performed in Santiago in 1973, to be dedicated to the struggle of the Greek people against the fascist regime, but tragically and ironically, in September of that year Chile itself succumbed to a fascist takeover led by no other, than Pinochet.  Neruda died 12 days after the military takeover. The first performance of the work took place in Athens in 1975 in the Karaiskaki football stadium right after Greece had been liberated from the junta, and what a celebration that was!  From one junta to the next, the work has become a symbol of the struggles of peoples against oppression.

The theatre is right next to the Acropolis - a great pity about the necessary scaffolding.

We arrived one hour early, but so did most other people

going up the steps

and here we are

one more photograph with the Acropolis on the right

still in the 'foyer', people suddenly started clapping. Theodorakis, a very frail Theodorakis, had arrived - he is the one wearing the black shirt with his back to us

people starting to come in. By the time the concert started, all 5000 seats were taken

Theodorakis on his way to his seat, in the white jacket

being given a standing ovation

All set to begin now: at the back the 64 strong choir, the orchestra with its interesting  collection of percussion instruments and at the front Maria Farandouri in red

Theodorakis tends to use poems as lyrics for his music. He predominantly draws on Greek poets but also some international ones, Lorca being a favourite. Canto General is the only work that has not been translated but is sung in Spanish

Each poem was read out to us in translation and then the music would start

Maria Farandouri and Petros Pandis were the original singers when the album first came out 40 years ago - it was therefore very appropriate and touching that they should be the ones singing this time

A last look at the Acropolis on our way home.


This music is woven in the soul of every freedom-loving Greek. During the dark years of the military dictatorship it was the music of Theodorakis, sang by Maria Farandouri, or Maria Dimitriadi, (who  unfortunately is no longer with us), and the rest of Theodorakis' singers that kept us going. We would go to secret 'boites'  and listen to the rousing, revolutionary songs, always apprehensive, always worried that the police, or even worse, the army would burst in. He wrote his best music during those years in Paris. Maria Farandouri was in Paris as well and they would record his latest work and then it would illegally reach us in Greece, would make the round, get copied, listened to and passed on. We lived on his message of perseverance and hope.