Greece: Poetry in Music, C.P.  Cavafy, George Seferis, and Odysseas Elytis

The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry of Greece, sponsored Greece: Poetry in Music, C.P.  Cavafy, George Seferis, Odysseas Elytis to celebrate the 61st Anniversary of the United Nations.  Organized by a different member of the United Nations each year, this concert honored the United Nations Charter that was created in 1945, and was presented to an audience of UN member representatives.  This is the first time that Greece, currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, organized this annual concert.

The same concert, under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry of Greece and sponsored by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, was also be presented at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, in New York on October 26th, 2006.

Greece: Poetry in Music featured modern poetry by acclaimed Greek poets C.P.  Cavafy, George Seferis, 1963 Nobel Prize Winner, and Odysseas Elytis, 1979 Nobel Prize Winner.  The poets’ literary works have been set to music by Greece’s most prominent composers, including Mikis Theodorakis, Manos Hatzidakis, Dimitris Laghios, Dimitris Papadimitriou and Spyros Samaras, composer of the Olympic Anthem.  Presenting their works was the National Symphony Orchestra of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation-ERT, led by conductors Andreas Pylarinos and Mo Steven White; Mexican lyric tenor Rolando Villazon; and Greek soloists Foteini Darra, Tasos Apostolou, and Andreas Smyrnakis.