Early Music Festival: “Odi, Euterpe”
“Odi, Euterpe”, the closing concert of the Early Music Festival, will be held at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Philhellinon 27 & Amalias Avenue (metro: Syntagma), on Saturday 15th October at 8:30pm. Organised by specs ‘n’ arts, the entrance fee is €10. Tickets are also available online via www.ticketservices.gr, or can be booked by calling 210.723.45.67.
Under the artistic direction of Dimitris Koundouras, soprano Fanie Antonelou and Flora Papadopoulos (baroque harp), with the participation of Irini Bilini-Moraiti (soprano), will interpret an arie (“air”) by Giulio Caccini (1551-1618) situated on the cusp between Renaissance and Baroque music.
“Odi, Euterpe” (Hear, Euterpe), an Italian monody from the early 17th century, recounts the encounter of a shepherd with his love one evening. The apparently banal theme of this pastoral love-story acquires a life of its own, though, because of the song’s dance-like nature thanks to the constantly shifting stress between triple and duple metres.
Based in Milan, Flora Papadopoulos completed her modern harp studies at the Conservatory of Parma before dedicating herself to mastering early harps. After further studies, where she received full honours, at the Scuola Civica of Milan, the University of Parma and the Sorbonne IV University in Paris, Flora Papadopoulos is now an acclaimed baroque harpist, with a performing career that includes both solistic and chamber music projects, as well as collaborations with several orchestras and ensembles all over Europe.
Soprano Fanie Antonelou studied voice, piano and music theory in Athens, before continuing her studies with distinction in Stuttgart. A singer with a distinctive timbre, who combines artistry with emotion, she has a repertoire that extends from the medieval to the contemporary, currently specialising in early music. Among other awards, Fanie Antonellou was the 2005 winner of the Grand Prix Maria Callas International Competition, in the Oratorio-
Together, Fanie Antonelou and Flora Papadopoulos are sure to transport their audience into a little-known and exciting realm: the beginning of what was a new style of solo singing, accompanied by the harp, that would later give birth to the arias we associate with opera.
Their performance is further proof of why the Early Music Festival hosted by St. Paul’s has been selected to receive the EFFE-Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe Label. Don’t miss it!
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