Thessaloniki: Tales of women’s folk song unfold on the scene of KTHBE

Time travel with sounds and images. On the scene of KTHBE in , a piece of the history of the folk song is expected to unfold… In a … music box, the scene Socrates Karadinus of the Lazarist Monastery will be transformed into a smaller “magic music box” that will open to hear notes that will travel the viewer to the magic of another era. Specifically, in the period between 1920 and 1960, in the forty years that shaped the Greek folk song in all its versions: Smyrrhic, rebetico, folk. Marika will be on stage. Whether this is Marika Papagika, or Marika Nino, or any popular singer “Marika” of the first half of the 20th century. This is the musical theatre performance “Marika called me – Marika took me out” by George Andreos and Odysseas John, the great co-production of the State Theatre of Northern Greece with the Municipal Regional Theatre of Serres, directed by the Artistic Director of KTHBE Asterios Pelteci. In fact, the roles of Marika incarnate two important singers, Eleni Tsaligopoulou and Corina Legaki. “It is a wonderful poetic journey, which essentially talks about archetypal forms the women’s of the Greek song, the history and the route they traveled and traveled, touching and travelling to us until today. It’s a very nice text, which, with the stage configuration that has been done and the reading that has come out, I think it has a nice route to travel us theatrically” says to the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency, Asteris Peltecis. The original idea and the debt to “Marika” The “seed” of the idea for the performance that will be presented to a Greek first on the coming Thursday, “brought” about 20 years ago in the mind of singer George Andreos. “As it seems from my discography, I like and honor women very much and have been sung mainly by female performers. I believe that in our culture, the culture of the Mediterranean, the woman had a special archetypal role and this is evident from the ancient years,” the artistic director of DI tells the APE-ME. WP. THE. Serres, pointing out that this is how he decided to write a musical play concerning women, their role in the Greek song and more generally in Greek culture. “We have been learning these women since the early 20th century thanks to recordings, because otherwise we would know little. We know them because we hear them through their route from the early 20th century until 1955-1960, which is the first big phase of the transformation of the song of the City (the song of Smyrna) into what we call today “Greek folk song”” explains Mr.Andreou. It considers it a duty to deal with these women while stressing the success of each. “Nino made this terrible career within a minimum period of time, less than a decade. The Papagika – which all the great musicologists of the 20th century regard as one of the greatest singers worldwide, recorded almost 300 songs in the early 20th century, which is a terrible feat of personal and cultural, especially considering that she wrote them once and outside – because there was no studio then,” she says. The idea is done with the contribution of Ulysses John The original idea of the composer and songwriter, was reflected in songs and musicians he wrote and which advanced the action and relationship of these women. Marika of Athens and Marika of America, of course, never met in life, but are to meet on stage, since – as the actors point out, this is not a biographical performance, but a fiction, which keeps real elements, but at the same time overthrows and adds stories from the lives of other performers and other routes. “So when I got to a music point, then I asked for Ulysses’ help so that there would be a theatrical text, a theatrical find that can support all this as a play and not just as music. Indeed, Odysseus John wrote an excellent theatrical text, which included all the information about the lives of these women, but not in a way of research or musicology, but with functional artistic, as a theatrical act,” says Mr. Andreou. In addition, Odysseus John wrote the lyrics in the two of the original songs of the play, while he coined a role that links the two personalities, which were the cause for the work, the role of the daughter – narrator, played by Panagiota Vittzakis. A work of women, from which men shine through their absence The original songs of the performance are songs that “walk on two boats”, since they are not songs of that time, but also modern ones. However, they manage to keep musically the relationship with the living tradition of the song, beginning in the early 20th century, but at the same time one understands that they are written with the eyes of a contemporary composer who has knowledge of the history of the folk song. They also sound well-known, traditional, as well as great historical creators of the folk song. On stage, one of the most important singers of the contemporary Greek song, Eleni Tsaligopoulou and one of the most talented singers of the younger generation, Korina Legaki. “In our collaboration I speak to them more in terms of musicians, because they understand them and they are closer to them and we have found a very nice modus vivendi in the everyday life of our rehearsal, we have a very good communication and I think they will both be excellent, they will not be left behind by our actors,” comments the director of the show for his collaboration with both singers. Of course, as he says, according to his own perception there is a difference between singer and performer. “A singer who sings the notes and has a way of having a right voice like a musician who plays an instrument, has a huge difference from an performer, who interprets whole worlds, whom he shares and communicates to the rest. Helen and Corina are performers and this gives them a lead in relation to a completely ignorant stage man, in relation to his participation in a theatrical performance,” concludes Mr. Peltec. As for the other women on stage, Asteris Peltecs reveals their relationship with the Three Fates of Greek mythology, while as far as men are concerned, he says that they “will shine through their absence”. “The other women of the work correspond with Atropo, Lachesis and Clesto and a fortune teller/paper/ psychic, covering the archetypal of divination and superstition later, in the various ways of divination whether they are called papers, glass bullets, or fortune teller Tiresia, or ancient fortune tellers of other cultures,” he explains. In the 30 years of existence of DI.A. THE. Serres, for the first time collaborates with K.TH.BE., while symbolic is considered the fact that the composer and director of their first co-production, is the artistic director of each body respectively. “My logic is very much of synergy and collaboration with other cultural institutions to the greatest extent possible, because I believe that we can find ways and solutions to do better and more creative jobs, to reproduce performances and actions of cultural content, which can through partnerships be better as a result. Hence our motto “theatrical together”, which has something to say about the operation and logic of my artistic direction for the theatre,” points out Mr Peltec. The performance “Marika called me – Marika took me out” for the stories of women of the People’s Song, premieres on Thursday 28 March, at 21.00, in the Lazarist Monastery (Skini Socrates Karadinos), where it will climb every Wednesday and Sunday at 19:00, every Thursday and Friday at 21:00 and every Saturday with a double performance at 18:00 and 21:00.