Alexis Zorbas

The complete symphonic version of Theodorakis' best-known work including German and English libretto.

In the "Zorba" ballet suite, Mikis Theodorakis uses almost exclusively well-known popular songs which he composed mainly in the 1960s. Some of them have been incorporated in the work as melodies, some of them as vocal pieces. It took twenty years before the composer became his normal self again; he first had to experience the disillusionment at the end of the 1970s concerning the social progress in Greece in order to be finally able to pick up the musical material, continue the compositional impetus of the 1950s and develop an appreciation for the genre of the opera in the mid-eighties which suits his composer's mentality – both as a melodist and as a symphonic composer – very well. When looking at the last and probably most productive period of his life, Theodorakis' return to symphonic music in 1980 must be seen as an act of liberation, as a return to his self. Since then, he has written several symphonies and oratorio-like works. In 1987, at last, the Zorba ballet marks the beginning of a new aesthetic practice.