An odyssey and ode to Greek culture
“It celebrates the Greek landscape, the sun, the blue, the sea,” said Kalliopi Giannatos, a board member of the Greek Cultural Center, conjuring up a vivid portrait as she praised the Greek poem “To Axion Esti.”
“It’s a masterpiece, an absolute masterpiece,” Giannatos said.
“To Axion Esti,” translated as “It is Worthy,” was written by Odysseus Elytis in 1959. Full of references to Greece’s rich cultural heritage, the work traces one man’s journey as he witnesses the horrors of World War II, then struggles to find beauty afterward.
Elytis became Greece’s second-ever Nobel laureate in literature when he was awarded the prize in 1979. Now, more than 100 years since he was born in 1911 on the island of Crete, the GCC will be celebrating his life’s work with a special tribute concert on Saturday, Feb. 25 at Astoria’s Frank Sinatra School of the Arts.
During the show, excerpts from “To Axion Esti,” set to music composed specifically for the poem by Mikis Theodorakis in 1960, will be sung by Vasilis Lekkas, whom the GCC has commissioned from Greece especially for the concert.
