Constantine Caravassilis: From Sappho's Lyre
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From Sappho’s Lyre is a double-album of music by contemporary composer Constantine Caravassilis, featuring poetry by Sappho, Sara Teasdale, and Jeffrey M. Duban, who also narrates.
The first disc is devoted to From Sappho’s Lyre, a multimedia cantata for large chamber ensemble based on Sappho’s two major surviving poems: The Hymn to Aphrodite and He Appears to Me (Equal to the Gods). Conceived as a stage work to be accompanied by dance and action, the composition’s design lavishly fuses elements of ancient Greek theatre with Western ballet and opera. Caravassilis conducts Tenth Muse Ensemble, with narration by the poetry’s translator and interpreter, Jeffrey M. Duban.
The second half of the release draws together several song cycles by Caravassilis, all inspired by or based on Sappho, starting with Five Duban Songs performed by mezzo-soprano Ariana Chris with the Tallina Kammerorkester conducted by Kaisa Rose. In My Life a Lyric City we hear settings of Sara Teasdale’s poetry, featuring soprano Jenni Klauder and pianist Maria Pikoula, while in Sappho de Mytilène, the first of his Sapphic inspirations, Caravassilis has orchestrated a translation into French of the poet Odysseus Elytis’s Greek.