The Season of Love: Hadjidakis and Frangoulis

What: Season of Love: Marios Frangoulis & Manos Hadjidakis

With the "Manos Hadjidakis Ensemble"
With Anna Linardou
Music director: Loucas Karytinos

When: Saturday, September 11th, 2010, 21:00

The concert will take place also on Thursday, September 16th, 2010 since for the 11th it is sold out

Where: Herod Atticus Odeon

Ticket Sales
Online: http://www.ticketservices.gr/en/FragoulisHadjidakis-594.php?ev=2588
Phone Sales: 210 7234567
Boxoffice: 39 Panepistimiou Str (Stoa Pesmazoglou)
Ticket Prices : 120, 80, 60, 50, 35 euro

About Mario Frangoulis:

In 1985, Frangoulis moved to London, where he attended a three-year professional acting course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama[3]. In 1988, during his final year, he played Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a production in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company for the Arundel Festival. Frangoulis then played the lead in the James McConnel/Kit Hesketh-Harvey[6] musical Orlando,, where he was spotted by Cameron Mackintosh who, after an audition, offered him the part of Marius[7] in the West End production of Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre (1988–1989) under the direction of Trevor Nunn. Also in 1989, Frangoulis —who had never studied classical singing— received the Maria Callas Scholarship for Opera[3]. After finishing Les Misérables, he went to Italy where he studied with tenor Carlo Bergonzi at the Verdi Academy in Busseto, graduating six months later.

In 1990 Frangoulis moved to Rome where, after a successful audition for the conductor Nicola Rescigno and the renowned tenor Alfredo Kraus, he became Kraus' first private student[7] and travelled with him around the world, studying vocal technique and repertory.

In 1991 Frangoulis was invited by Andrew Lloyd Webber to star as Raoul in Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre[8]. The same year, he appeared alongside Montserrat Caballé, Samuel Ramey and the British Youth Opera in the charity gala 'Serenade to a Princess' at the Whitehall Palace, celebrating the birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales.[5]

In 1992, Frangoulis moved to New York to continue his operatic studies. At the suggestion of his mentor Marilyn Horne,[5] and with the help of the Onassis Scholarship,he completed a three-year course at the Juilliard School of Music[3], as well as studying with soprano Dodi Protero.[5] In 1993, Frangoulis also travelled to Liverpool, where he performed in an Opera Gala celebrating the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, hosted by Sir Peter Ustinov, with the orchestra and chorus of the London Royal Opera House.Artists appearing were Montserrat Caballé, Dmitri Hvorostowki, Julia Migenes-Johnson, Dennis O' Neil, Rita Hunter and the late Alfredo Kraus, with the orchestra and chorus of the London Royal Opera House conducted by Robin Stapleton, in the presence of His Majesty Juan Carlos of Spain and HM Queen Sophia, and HRH Prince Andrew of England[5] In the summer of the same year, he sang at the Athens Concert Hall in an opera gala dedicated to the memory of Maria Callas alongside stars of the Greek National Opera. In 1994 he was the first Greek to become a finalist in the Luciano Pavarotti International Competition[7].

In 1995, Frangoulis returned to London to play the role of Lun-Tha in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical The King and I during the Covent Garden Festival. This performance received great critical acclaim from a number of newspapers including the Times and The Guardian.[5] He also sang the title role in the musical Yusupov in Oxford as well as Johnny in «Sail away» (Savoy theatre in London). In 1995 he participated in a recording of Bernard J.Taylor 's "Nosferatu", a double CD of the whole through-sung work, starring Peter Karrie as Nosferatu, Claire Moore as Mina, Mario Frangoulis as Jonathan. A highlights cassette is also available. The recording was released in April 1995 with a "Vampire Night" at Stringfellow's nightclub in London, and was Dress Circle's best-selling recording for over three months after its release.

Marios has since then continued to achieve amazing feats, being the first Greek to sing in Italy's La Scala and releasing top-selling CD's and performing around the country.

About Manos Hadjidakis:

Manos Hatzidakis (Greek: Μάνος Χατζιδάκις) (October 23, 1925 – June 15, 1994) was a Greek composer. He was born in Xanthi. In 1960 he received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his Song Never on Sunday from the film of the same name. He is widely popular among Greeks and can be credited with the introduction of bouzouki music into mainstream culture

His very first work was the tune for the song Paper Moon (Χάρτινο το Φεγγαράκι), from Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire staged by Karolos Koun's Art Theatre of Athens, a collaboration which continued for 15 years. His first piano piece, "For a Small White Seashell" (Για μια Μικρή Λευκή Αχιβάδα) came out in 1947 and in 1948 he shook the musical establishment by delivering his legendary lecture on rembetika, the urban folk songs that flourished in Greek cities, mainly Piraeus, after the Asia Minor refugee influx in 1922 and until then had heavy underworld and cannabis use connections and were consequently looked down upon.[citation needed] Hatzidakis focused on the economy of expression, the deep traditional roots and the genuineness of emotion displayed in rembetika, and exalted the likes of composers like Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis. Putting theory to practice, he adapted classic rembetika in his 1951 piano work, Six Folk Paintings (Έξι Λαϊκές Ζωγραφιές), which was later also presented as a folk ballet. In 1949 he co-founded the Greek Dance Theatre Company with the choreographer Rallou Manou.[1]

At this point he began writing immensely popular "pop" songs and movie soundtracks alongside more serious works, such as 1954's The C.N.S. Cycle (O Kyklos tou C.N.S.), a song cycle for piano and voice recalling the German lied in its form, if not in style. In 1955 he wrote the score for Michael Cacoyannis' film Stella, with actress Melina Mercouri, singing the movie's trademark song "Love that became a double-edged knife" (Αγάπη που 'γινες δίκοπο μαχαίρι). Hatzidakis always maintained that he wrote his serious pieces for himself and his less serious ones to make a living.[citation needed]

In 1959, Hatzidakis met Nana Mouskouri, his first "ideal interpreter", a skilled vocalist who shaped the sounds of his music.[citation needed] It was 1960 that brought him international success, as his score for Jules Dassin's film, Never on Sunday (Ποτέ την Κυριακή), won him an Academy Award, with Never On Sunday ("Τα παιδιά του Πειραιά") becoming a huge worldwide hit.[citation needed]

In 1962, he produced the musical Dream Street (Οδός Ονείρων)[2] and completed his score for Aristophanes' Birds (Όρνιθες), another Art Theater production which caused an uproar over Karolos Koun's revolutionary direction. The score was also used later by Maurice Béjart's 20th Century Ballets. He also wrote the music for a song which Arthur Altman added English lyrics to and gave to Brenda Lee. The song was "All Alone Am I". In 1964 he publishes his album 15 Vespers (Δεκαπέντε Εσπερινοί) with the famous song Mr Antonis (Ο Κυρ Αντώνης)[3].

In 1965, his LP Gioconda's Smile (Το Χαμόγελο της Τζιοκόντας)[4] was released on Minos-EMI. In 2004, it was re-released, digitally remastered as an audiophile LP and a CD in the EMI Classics collection. In 1966 he travelled to New York City for the premiere of Illya Darling, a Broadway musical based on Never on Sunday, which starred Mercouri. He did not return to Greece until 1972 due to his opposition to Greece's military dictatorship.

While in the United States he completed several more major compositions, including Rhythmology (Rythmologia) for solo piano, his compilation, Gioconda's Smile (produced by Quincy Jones), and the song cycle, Magnus Eroticus (Megalos Erotikos), in which he used ancient (Sappho, Euripides), medieval (stanzas from folk songs and George Hortatzis' romance Erophile) and modern (Dionysios Solomos, Constantine Cavafy, Odysseus Elytis, Nikos Gkatsos) Greek poems, as well as an excerpt from the Old Testament book "Wisdom of Solomon". His LP Reflections with the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble contained several of his most beautiful songs, either in orchestral form or with English lyrics written by the band - a record that preceded fusion trends by several decades.

Hatzidakis returned to Greece in 1972 and recorded Magnus Eroticus with singer Fleury Dantonaki, an opera-trained alto and singer Dimitri Psarianos. Following the junta's overthrow, he became active in public life and assumed a number of positions in the Athens State Orchestra (KOA), the National Opera (ELS), and the National Radio (ERT). In 1985 he launched his own record company "Seirios" (Sirius). In 1989 he founded and directed the Orchestra of Colours (Orhistra ton Chromaton), a small symphonic orchestra.[citation needed] He assumed the role of score composer for his friend Federico Fellini's films, following Nino Rota's death, but the collaboration never materialized because of Hatzidakis's mounting health problems.