35 f Voice Of Liberty
Maria Farantouri, closely associated with the songs of Mikis Theodorakis, has spent a lifetime singing for the silenced. Elisavet Sotiriadou meets a Greek legend.
M
aria Farantouri’s singing voice, strong and clear as church bells ringing, empowers you. It brings fresh air into my lungs,
gives me hope, puts me into the spirit of fighting for human rights and freedom for all people. Half a century after she started her singing career, that power of her soulful voice has not been lost.
She is the Greek singer of liberty. Her magnificent poise and powerful voice along with her interpretation of songs are all as important factors to the song as the lyrics are. Jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd has likened her to Billie Holiday and a god- dess bringing salvation to everyone. And it does not matter whether she sings a tradi- tional Greek folk song or Theodorakis and Hatzidakis songs, she has her typical char- acteristic way of singing that makes it impossible not to recognise.
In person she comes across as a friend- ly soul, full of advice, interested to ask about the background and life of the per- son she is to be interviewed by. Farantouri presents herself in a very unpretentious and modest way. Sitting in a dimly lit but smart hotel room, she’s got a colourful scarf draping her shoulders and neck above her tunic. It’s a grand moment, it’s a meeting with the past and present and the woman who has sung the modern history and the literature of Greece and so many other nations. Despite the fame she is still
down to earth, true to her ideals and songs. She has devoted her life to sing for those who have no voice; those who have been silenced by undemocratic regimes. She is an intellectual cult figure and as she talks, knowledge seeps through between the lines. It’s not a dense dialogue between us, she elegantly masters the Greek language. I am very honoured to be her audience and the one who gets to ask questions, but thankfully we’re sitting at a table which provides a cover for my shaky legs. I understand why Lloyd finds her such a remarkable woman and beyond!
It was thanks to Mikis Theodorakis, the renowned Greek composer, that she became the voice of oppressed peoples and the voice of opposition around the world. Those songs that Mikis Theodorakis brought into broad daylight with Faran- touri’s voice were actually poems, mainly by Greek poets, that he had put music to, turning them into lyrics and somehow fighter songs. But more essentially, he brought Greek literary treasures and her- itage that only intellectuals were aware of into the lives of all Greek people. Theodor- akis created songs that would be on the lips of many generations to come, and those songs are becoming part of the tra- ditional Greek scene. Maria Farantouri was the voice for those songs, the voice for Theodorakis when regimes and authorities were trying hard to silence him because of his political views.
F
arantouri and Theodorakis – because you cannot speak of Farantouri without mentioning Theodorakis – have given Greeks and non-Greeks access to world- renowned poetry through melodies he composed. Theodorakis wrote songs and dedicated album titles to Farantouri. He has not dedicated to any other singers who sang his songs, even if he knew who he was composing for. Theodorakis knew from the first time he heard Farantouri that she was meant to sing his songs. He told her so after seeing her sing for the first time in a choir in Athens, and went backstage to tell her so, to which she replied: “I know!”
When I ask her how she came to choose this style of music, she immediate- ly reacts, “It’s not a style versus another style. Theodorakis is our history, the great musician, composer, the great creator, a rare personality for Greece which is in need of legends.”
Photo: Tassos Vrettos
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