MIKIS THEODORAKIS FOREVER…

How do you approach a living legend? Without fear and with a lot of passion as is appropriate for the man, the fighter and the composer Mikis Theodorakis. Trying to put down in words your own experience, opinion, and perception of his work and his personality.

  What comes naturally in my mind when I hear the name Theodorakis? The artist that so intelligently fused classical music with folk and popular bouzouki greek music and popularised the work of great Greek poets like Elytis and Ritsos. The composer that showed the world what Greek music is like, through his soundtrack for “Zorba the Greek”. At the same time the freedom fighter comes forth, a man that participated in protests for the rights of the working class, a man who was imprisoned and tortured for the ideas he believed in, who travelled all over the world performing against the military junta in Greece, someone that still has the guts to criticize modern Rome’s foreign policy. Lately, another automation has been formed in my mind about him. Theodorakis, a great man who tirelessly works for the coming together of the nations and especially the people of Turkey and Greece, who recognizes the tremendous progress this country has made in only a few decades, who views current political issues and the Left from a mature viewpoint. And after many years when all this will have slowly fade away from collective memory, the sound “Axion Esti” would still be a rare diamond of civilization…

PAVLOS LIONTAS