In 2017, Dimitris Maramis shook the musical theater scene when he inaugurated the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera with the Greek musical Erotokritos, one of its greatest successes, which was soon transferred to the Herodion stage. This was followed in 2019 at the Athens Concert Hall by the musical theater trilogy Haunted (The Bridge of Arta, The Song of the Dead Brother and The Charmaina Ghost), and in the two-year period 2021-2023 in Crete by his operas Captain Michalis and Eleftherios Venizelos. The latter premiered at the Heraklion Cultural Conference Center.

Almost ten years later, Dimitris Maramis selects the most significant musical moments from his four musical theater works for a concert eloquently titled “TETRALOGY,” produced by the Friends of Music Society, in memory of Aris and Lilian Voudouris. A host of distinguished soloists participate: the Musica Friends of Music choirs, the Youth Choir of Leontios School of Nea Smyrni, choirs from Central Greece, and the Philarmonia Orchestra of Athens, under the musical direction of Nikos Maliaras.

Ahead of the highly anticipated concert, we spoke with the composer about the sources of his musical inspiration and the works he will present.

What were your first musical influences? When did you decide to become a composer and when did you start writing music?

Everything starts from my true homeland, childhood. My childhood had a small hidden paradise consisting of scattered vinyl records with music by Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner, and an old German C. Bechstein piano in a small provincial village. I don’t know how so much Germany had permeated the soul of an elementary school child in a small provincial village, but it was enough for me to decide then to dedicate myself to music.

You spent many years working on music for the theater. Was this accidental or a choice?

Not at all accidental. I belong to the theatrical composers. My music, whether I write a song, orchestral music, or musical theater, is characterized as theatrical. What does theatrical music mean? It means that from the very first notes, it creates a specific atmosphere and doesn’t wait to build a symphonic universe that requires time. Theatrical music is freer in creating intense twists and surprises. It has a different vitality than symphonic music. It follows a dramaturgical logic, and not just a cerebral evolutionary structuring of form.

After writing the highly successful music for Vitsentzos Kornaros’ theatrical performance of Erotokritos, directed by Stathis Livathinos in 2011, you decided to develop it into a “Greek musical” – and thus wrote your first musical theater work. How did you make this decision?

When I was collaborating with Stathis Livathinos at the Acropol Theater for the staging of the theatrical Erotokritos, with the excellent actors Dimitris Imellos, Maria Nafpliotou, Nefeli Kouri, Meletis Ilias and other great members of Livathinos’ team at the time, during the same period I was looking for a theme and a way to write my first musical. And while I was searching for themes through literature, my subject had already knocked on my door, which was none other than Erotokritos, but I hadn’t realized it. This is natural, of course, as I was then writing the theatrical music for the work in a completely different context. I understood that something had happened with this work and with the music I had written for it, when at one of my concerts, I presented a song from the theatrical Erotokritos. After this song, the audience wouldn’t stop applauding. Then another concert of mine followed, where I presented more songs from the performance, and I again noticed the very warm reception from the audience. So I decided to immerse myself in Kornaros’ poetic romance and start writing the musical. However, it had operatic dimensions and nothing to do with what they call a musical in Greece, or the English or American type. My Erotokritos is an extensive work, which has no prose at all, but a continuous flow of music. As in all my musical theater works.

This happened at a time that you might even describe as a period of maturity. How significant did the decision to write a musical theater work – essentially an opera – seem to you? Why didn’t you take it earlier?

Everything in its own time. The truth is that in previous years, I had dedicated time and effort to songwriting, having written song cycles. The composition of Erotokritos came at a point in my life where the need for a larger form and for a creative outburst, if you will, was imperative. The birth of this work was like a lifeline, stemming from an inner despair. It was purely an internal, spiritual need. However, even as a conservatory and school student, I had musical theater in mind and improvised scenes from texts on the piano. Was I reading Homer? I wanted to turn it into an opera. Was I reading Karagatsis? I wanted to turn it into an opera. Was I reading Papadiamantis? I wanted to turn it into an opera.

Do you waver between different forms of musical theater – opera and musical? Does the fact that lyrical and non-lyrical singers coexist in your works indicate that you want to be in both worlds simultaneously?

I certainly don’t waver, as each of my works has a clear identity, and the choices of its components are the result of clear intentions about what I want to achieve. I want my music to descend from the stage to the listener. I don’t write for theoretical musicologists or for my composition teachers, but for ordinary listeners. I write for musicians who will enjoy playing my music, and which technically must be correctly crafted. For singers who will be able to sing my music even prima vista. I want the words to be understandable and not to get lost in musical acrobatics. Otherwise, words are not needed in music. This is one reason I mix voices; to make the text understandable.

Sometimes – not always – I choose voices that help make my music more accessible to an uninitiated audience. Furthermore, this is also educational. The choice of voices also serves specific characters within a work. It was natural in Captain Michalis for me to ask for a singer for the character of Emine who is not a coloratura soprano, but who could sing even an amanés.

Now that selections from all four works are being presented together, do you see more of what is common, or how different the musical language of each work is?

As a creator, I chart a specific course in my thematic choices. Konstantis from the folk song succeeds Kornaros’ Erotokritos, Kazantzakis’ Captain Michalis succeeds the previous two, and Eleftherios Venizelos of Greek history succeeds Captain Michalis of a fiction based on true events and real characters. All four heroes, fictional and real, are seekers of their dream, their desire, their vision, their freedom. Their absolute common denominator is the “freedom of their will and choices.” Musically, the four works have differences, and each, I believe, manages to claim its own musical identity. All four follow an operatic structure. All four develop upon dramaturgical climaxes. Erotokritos marries traditional modes with elements of jazz music based on the pentatonic scale, The Haunted has a Balkan music flavor, Captain Michalis utilizes folk modes but approaches opera even more closely, and Venizelos is a purely Greek opera and perhaps the first such clearly Greek historical opera.

How do you compose? Intellectually, with a plan, or do you primarily surrender to inspiration?

Everything, however we name it with more or less romantic disposition, is essentially the work of the brain. Inspiration, the breath within you, is the element that creates a greater vibration and manages to lead you to creation in something more unprecedented, original, unheard of. Inspiration is a very important thing, but not always the most necessary to create.

How do you incorporate different musical traditions into your work? In Erotokritos, the use of Cretan music is evident; in Venizelos, you have utilized folk songs, such as Amynis ta Paidia.

This challenge is very beautiful, and I love to make references to other musical works or other composers. It’s like existing music meets within your own music. This fascinates me greatly. However, it’s like theme and variations, where you take an existing theme from another composer and vary it as your own creative brain guides you. In Venizelos, the moment when my varied version of “Amynis ta Paidia” is heard, it acts as a pleasant breath for the audience’s ear, as they relax with something familiar, to gain strength to follow the next part of my original music, in the overwhelming flow of this opera.

In Venizelos, you tackle a historical figure and events that remain controversial. Of course, the very choice indicates that he is a central figure in Greek history. What drew you to this subject and how did you handle it?

It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. A huge challenge. I dealt with the personality who defined our current borders. The leader with the greatest influence on our modern life today. At the same time, however, this revolutionary lawyer suffered two brutal assassination attempts, among others. He was canonized and anathematized. His path shows exactly what happens when you constantly walk with transcendence as your compass.

Does the fact that your works will be presented in concert at the Megaron, without their dramatic dimension, concern you?

No. They have been carefully selected, and more emphasis will be placed on their musical power rather than their dramaturgical logic.

For the concert at the Megaron, you have already received a great response from the public, as have all your previous works. Where did the initiative for this Tetralogy come from, in collaboration with the Friends of Music Society?

For the Tetralogy, apart from the common root and affinities between the works, I was driven by the need to present my four extensive musical theater works in concert in Athens, so that, even if fragmented, the audience could get to know them. Two of the four works never had the chance to be presented and made known in the capital. The Friends of Music Society, as well as the Philarmonia Orchestra of Athens, were very familiar with my work and opened the doors of the Megaron to me with enthusiasm and trust. It is also extremely important that we all participate in this concert pro bono and that the proceeds will be allocated to the scholarships of the Friends of Music Society.

CONCERT INFORMATION

Η ΤΕΤΡΑΛΟΓΙΑ «Ερωτόκριτος – Στοιχειωμένοι – Καπετάν Μιχάλης – Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος» του Δημήτρη Μαραμή στο ΜΜΑ