David Dalle
Thursday August 29th, 2024 with David Dalle
Constantine Caravassilis joins me to present his most ambitious work to date "From Sappho's Lyre".

This week we are privileged to have Canadian composer Constantine Caravassilis joining me to present his most ambitious work to date, "From Sappho's Lyre". There are actually several works which Caravassilis composed based on Sappho and sapphic-inspired poems, in collaboration with author, poet, and classicist Jeffrey Duban. The largest, which we will hear today, is a multimedia cantata for large chamber ensemble based on Sappho's two complete surviving poems: "The Hymn to Aphrodite" and "He Appears to Me (Equal to the Gods)". Caravassilis created a piece which fuses the idea of ancient Greek drama with ballet and opera. With the poems sung and narration spoken in Ancient Greek and English translations by Jeffrey Duban. It is an profoundly rich, complex, and immersive work, breathtaking! It reminds me of Philip Glass' opera "Akhnaten". Not in how it sounds, "From Sappho's Lyre" does not sound like Glass. But we know almost nothing about what ancient Egyptian or Ancient Greek music actually sounded like. Yet Glass wrote an opera about ancient Egypt using his contemporary style with orchestra and soloists which really evokes ancient Egypt. Caravassilis achieved something similar, his cantata evokes ancient Greece. You are easily transported 2600 years ago in an amphitheatre on a Greek island immersed in this music! https://www.caravassilis.ca/discography/from-sapphos-lyre