DIMITRIS PAPADIMITRIOU– C.P. CAVAFY: “…AN ALEXANDRIAN WRITING ON AN ALEXANDRIAN”

“Cavafy can be set to music, a task so hard, if not impossible, if you are not an Egyptiot Greek; it is still hard even if you are one. Indeed, you can set Cavafy to music. In the sense that sometimes you may feel him smirking at you in a sardonic way. Only if he sees something in you will the cunning Alexandrian slowly clean his lenses—in a secret gesture where he will let your hazy reflection flicker on his fable round and little glasses as he polishes them meticulously. This is what it means to set Cavafy to music.”
Dimitris Papadimitriou’s work “an Alexandrian writing on an Alexandrian” was composed and first presented at the official opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in October 2002. In November 2024, it was presented on the Onassis Stegi Main Stage, where it earned the audience’s enthusiastic applause.