THESSALONIKI ODESSA CLASSICS 2025:
THIS IS BRITTEN

The performance is based on two monumental song cycles by the British composer Benjamin Britten, one of the leading composers of the 20^th century who first presented himself in Greece in the framework of this performance.
Britten’s first song cycle is based on the poetry of the “heretical” William Blake, while the second one draws upon the Holy Sonnets of the Renaissance poet John Donne—a cycle that was written by the composer after his visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
The aim of the aforementioned stage installation was to convey to the audience, both musically and visually, the profound emotional and philosophical weight of these two cycles, which delve into the personal despair of both the poets and the composer, the torment of religious doubt, and the relentless search for redemption and freedom. Ultimately, despite their pervasive melancholy they convey, these cycles—rooted in poetry of unparalleled beauty and intensity—stand as a testament to human resistance against existential resignation, the world’s violence, and death, thereby rendering them deeply revolutionary.

This event is part of the “Thessaloniki Odessa Classics 2025” Festival.