“The Great Provocateur” – Part III, by Dimitris Papadimitriou

“The Great Provocateur”: The Third Part of a song cycle dedicated to intellectual, moral and aesthetic liberty – and, why not, to libertinism!

Aristophanes, Villon, Embirikos, Cavafy, Koropoulis, Lapathiotis, Leontaris, Brecht, John Donne, Palamas, Rilke, Sachlikis are but a few of the poets whose work is set to music by Papadimitriou, as he reveals unknown aspects of their art and sheds new light on their heretical self.

In the composer’s own self-mocking words, “the cycle’s title intentionally plays on the notion of provocation – a nod to the ‘great heretic’ – in honor of those who are not afraid of self-mockery, mocking those who hold themselves in high honor (I mean this playfully, of course) – something very much in the spirit of our own Manos Hadjidakis and his ‘Great Erotic’ song cycle, as some of you may have guessed.”

Vocalists Veronica Davaki, Panos Papaioannou, and Giorgos Florakis will perform the songs, accompanied by an ensemble of seven musicians. The performance is part of the Contemporary Music and Poetry Cycle organized by the Hellenic Project, which aims to support and promote contemporary musical creativity and original projects. The commissioning of new works provides a platform for the younger generation of artists, and an opportunity for the public to discover global poetic traditions through the medium of music.

“The Great Provocateur – Third Part” closes the cycle conceived by Papadimitriou in December 2018. The first part of the cycle premiered on Stegi’s Small Stage in February, 2019, whereas the second part premiered in the same venue later that year, in November. The cycle consists of thirty songs.

“A Song Cycle dedicated to intellectual, moral and aesthetic liberty – and, why not, to libertinism! Which is say that it’s dedicated to the poetically rebellious, the poem as an act of disobedience; to provocation, in other words. It is also dedicated, the uncompromising hunt for an immaculate, unsullied, absolute truth that automatically consigns its standard-bearers to the fringes of society and to an unseen Inquisition. Because there’s nothing more deathly anti-social than large doses of uncompromising truth.

This is the last of the three parts of the project. Aristophanes, Villon, Embirikos, Cavafy, Karyotakis, Koropoulis, Lapathiotis, Laforgue, Leontaris, Brecht, John Donne, Palamas, Rilke, Baudelaire, Seferis, Alexandros Schinas, Auden are but a few of the protagonists in this cycle of heretical poetic forms.

The cycle’s title intentionally plays on the notion of provocation – a nod to the ‘great heretic’ – in honor of those who are not afraid of self-mockery, mocking those who hold themselves in high honor (I mean this playfully, of course) – something very much in the spirit of our own Manos Hadjidakis and his ‘Great Erotic’ song cycle, as some of you may have guessed.

Our literary consultant is no other than Giorgos Koropoulis.”

– Composer Dimitris Papadimitriou