Olympia Theater, Pavlos Carrer's Marathon-Salamis

Marathon - Salamis

Historical melodrama in four parts.

Music Pavlos Carrer

Libretto Memnon Martzokis

OLYMPIA THEATER

29, 30, 31 October / 2 November 2010 (4 performances)

Starts 20.00

The opera Marathon - Salamis was completed in 1888 and was meant to inaugurate the new Athens Municipal Theater. However, it was first presented by the Greek National Opera in 2003, that is 115 years after its composition. It is based on a libretto written in Italian by Memnon Martzokis. The story is set in the prelude to the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC.

In the heady days of Greece’s victory over the Persians at Marathon, Fedima, a Persian, falls in love with Alexander, the Macedon warrior. She has followed him all the way to Greece, but he abandons her. As she searches for him in Athens together with her child, the product of their affair, Alexander announces to the Athenians that Xerxes wishes to make peace. Themistocles tells him that the Greeks would rather die than live as slaves. Myrto, Themistocles’ daughter, falls instantly in love with Alexander. Fedima is heartbroken, but Themistocles helps her get back on her feet.

Before the Battle of Salamis, Fedima enters the Persian camp and convinces Xerxes that the Greeks have lost all hope. Shortly after, Alexander attacks Fedima with a dagger, calling her a snake that has bitten the bosom that gave her life. As she lays dying, she tells him that she did not betray Themistocles: The general himself had sent her to Xerxes to put him off the scent. Remorseful, the Macedonian warrior sinks the dagger into his own heart…

The Greeks triumph. Themistocles, together with Myrto and Fedima’s child, see Alexander dead and the young Persian woman dying. Fedima tells them that she is happy to die beside the man she loves and that her child finally found a father, as Greece has won.

The composer Pavlos Carrer – or Carreris - was born on the Ionian island of Zakynthos in 1829 and died there in 1896. He was taught by Italian music teacher and is believes to have attended classes in music theory in 1848 in Corfu under Nikolaos Mantazros, later continuing his studies in Milan from 1850/7. His earliest work was presented in the northern Italian city, at the famed Carcano Theater. He returned to Zakynthos in 1857 and the following year, extracts of his opera Markos Botsaris were presented in Athens in the presence of King Otto. The complete opera was presented in Patras in 1861. He later composed Kyra-Frosini (1868), Despo (1875) and Marathon – Salamis (1886), among other works. The most famous of the many songs he penned is «Gero-Demos,» which is set to poetry by Aristotelis Valaoritis, and which was incorporated into the opera Markos Botsaris.

Carrer’s music ranks him as the most important composer to emerge from the Ionian region before Spyridon Filiskos Samaras.

Cast and Production

Conductor Byron Fidetzis

Director Issidoros Sideris

Sets - Costumes Yannis Metsikoff

Choreography Kyriakos Cosmides

Lighting design Costas Blogouras

Lighting director Nikos Ergazakis

Band conductor Giorgos Aravides

The Greek National Opera Orchestra and Choir

Choirmaster Nikos Vassileiou

CAST

Fedima Cellia Costea (29, 31 Oct.), Sophia Kyanidou (30 Oct., 2 Nov.)

Themistocles Tassis Christoyannis (29, 31 Oct.), Kyros Patsalides (30 Oct., 2 Nov.)

Alexander Yannis Christopoulos (29, 31 Oct.), Antonis Koroneos (30 Oct., 2 Nov.)

Myrto Marita Paparizou (29, 31 Oct.), Marissia Papalexiou (30 Oct., 2 Nov.)

Poet Margarita Varlamou

Priest Tassos Apostolou

Xerxes Dimitris Kassioumis

Pythia Artemis Bogri (29, 31 Oct.), Roza Poulimenou (30 Oct., 2 Nov.)

(Press Release)