Maria Farantouri
Maria Farantouri (Greek Μαρία Φαραντούρη Maria Farandouri; born November 28, 1947 in Athens ) is a Greek singer.
Biography
Maria Farantouri is often mentioned in the same breath as Mikis Theodorakis, as they sang the solo female voice in many of his oratorios and song cycles ( Theodorakis called them " his priestess "). International fame she gained in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly through the Canto General. Since the 1990s, she has devoted herself increasingly own projects.
Maria Farantouri, "the greatest voice of Greece", is an outstanding figure of the Greek music scene. Successfully internationally since the 1980s, it applies to their fellow musicians as her fans as authentic interpreter of the New Greek song. In the 1960s and 1970s became famous as the " ideal interpreter " of songs by Mikis Theodorakis, it is now the undisputed "Diva" European format, which moves with ease between tradition and modernity Pop.
She became famous in 1965 when she succeeded with their first LP, the "Mauthausen " cycle of Theodorakis, equal to the breakthrough. In 1967, she left after the military coup in Greece to protest to 1974 in hundreds of concerts all over the world against the dictatorship of Colonel. The critics celebrated enthusiastically. The Guardian: "Her unique voice is a gift of the Olympian gods. " Le Monde: " Farantouri is the Joan Baez of the Mediterranean. " François Mitterrand in his book The bee and the architect: "Mary is for me Greece. So I imagine the goddess Hera. I remember no other artist who has taught me to such an extent the feeling of the divine. "
1982-83 she appeared in several major concerts of the West German peace movement, partly together with Theodorakis, partially shared with the Turkish singer Zülfü Livaneli - this also as a conscious protest against the traditional hostilities between Greek and Turkish nationalists.
In the parliamentary election 1989 candidate Theodorakis, who had previously been active communist, for the conservative party New Democracy and PASOK Farantouri for the socialist. During the reign of Andreas Papandreou it was from 1990 to 1993 Member of Parliament for PASOK.
Maria Farantouri collaborated on stage and in the studio with John Williams, Manos Hadjidakis, Zülfü Livaneli, Leo Brouwer, Vangelis, Lucio Dalla, Zubin Mehta and many others. In 1995 she celebrated her international comeback concerts in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia. In 1996 she began her collaboration with the German composer and arranger Henning Schmiedtberger with which they three exceptional - and critically acclaimed - Theodorakis CDs, POETICA (1996 ), Asmata (1998) and WAY HOME (2007), produced. On July 16, 2000, she appeared (directed by Gert Hof ) in a triumphant concert in Ferropolis at Dessau, where 10,000 people applauded her stormy. On July 29, 2000, she took along with Milva, Petros Pandis and other well-known artists at the concert on the occasion of the 75th birthday of Theodorakis at the Munich Royal Square in part, an acclaimed by the press and the public major event a year later at Tropical on CD ( " Happy Birthday, Miki! " ) has been released.
Farantouri but also works with younger composers, for example, Pericles Kukos, a composer of classical music, and breaks new ground, their relationship to traditional musical heritage, however, continues to maintain sustaining. So Maria Farantouri interpreted lately increasingly demotic, rebetische and island songs and Byzantine hymns.
Among her most important interpretations of Theodorakis works: Canto General on the eponymous poem by Pablo Neruda, Romancero gitano on texts by Federico Garcia Lorca, in which she was accompanied by Australian composer and guitarist John Williams, and the symphonic version of the Mauthausen Cantata that the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta aufführte 1991.
Maria Farantouri is married to a Greek politician and poet Tilemachos Chitiris and has a son.