SPYROS SAMARAS: CRETAN GIRL

 

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Comic melodrama in three acts
Libretto by Nikolaos Laskaris and Polyvios Dimitrakopoulos

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In the program of its first production the Cretan girl is referred to as a comic melodrama; there is no indication though concerning the genre on the composer's manuscript. Although the plot is set on Crete during the Venetian rule (1211-1715), the inspiration for the work came probabley from the Cretan revolutions against the Ottoman Empire during the late 19th century, the foundation of the Cretan State (1896-1913) and finally the unification of Crete with Greece after the Balkan Wars of 1912/3. Central figure of the plot is Areti, the Cretan girl. She tries to gain priviliges for her compaltriots from the Venetian Duke of Crete, who is in love with her. Around this basic plot a number of comical sentmental stories unfolds, which lead the opera to a happy ending