About
EROS
Y
MUERTE
« Two things enlighten us, both of which come unexpected : love and death. It is by these
two events alone that we become intelligent, because they make us ignorant. »
Christian Bobin
When I decided to mix songs in three different languages for this album, I knew the outcome
might seem too heterogeneous. But as I composed the music it became obvious that a secret
dialogue was taking place amongst the authors. As if Pablo Neruda’s wonderful love sonnets
could finally appease Kostis Palamas’s sorrow, while Anna de Noailles’ strong fight to live
ultimately left marks of her incommensurable kindness on Kostas Karyotakis’ dark “Journée
d’Avril.” While one wrote of love, death was standing right behind passion in the same way
Palamas lamented his dead child. In the end the cycle of life was reinitiated and the mourning
clothes were discarded. Love and Death. The “miracle des voyelles”, the book J.R.
Caussimon discusses in “La mort,” a song put to music by Léo Ferré. As if death was love’s
sister?
These three languages are in fact the three sides of my culture. Greek is my mother tongue;
French is my language of adoption and Spanish is the first language that fascinated me as a
child. I used to sing in Spanish, imitating the singers without really understanding the lyrics.
As a sailor, my father would bring home vinyl LPs from his journeys to Latin America. It
was the language of my dreams. The music sounded Greek but since I couldn’t understand I
was able to give fancy meaning to the lyrics, which came directly from my imagination. It
freed me.
Being a child, this freedom allowed me to break all the rules and I decided to mix the songs
without paying attention to linguistic coherence. « SABRAS que no te amo y que te amo » is
the first song on the album. The five songs in Spanish are all composed to selected poems
from P. Neruda’s “Cien sonetos de amor,” a collection dedicated to his wife Mathilde. I first
started composing them three years ago for the show “Alas pa’volar,” which was later
recorded on CD. I completed them for an event organized in the memory of Pablo Neruda in
May, 2004 in Montpellier, France.
I composed « ISSIHA KE SIGALA » (Slowly, softly), « O MAVROS KAVALARIS » (Le
Chevalier Noir), et « TO STERNO NANOURISMA », (The last lullaby) to Kostis Palamas
poems, who is considered the Greek Victor Hugo. They are about the death of his young child.
The first two were composed with the same musical theme.
« Mera t’aprili » (Jour d’avril), talks about the execution of Athanassios Diakos, a Greek
resistant fighter.
Kostis Palamas is also the author of « T’AGIOKLIMA » (The honeysuckle). It is a
wonderfully tender poem about love that has a slightly hidden erotic side, in which the poet
would like to be a honeysuckle, climbing and flourishing under his beloved’s windowpane.
K.Palamas wrote with rhymes and I was very frustrated not to be able to do the same in the
French translation. As a result, the song lacks the original version’s musicality. The epilogue
was inspired by Anna de Noailles. Her arrogant ways and her “ear piercing” scream out her
desire to live. I was deeply touched by this as a teenager, when I first read this poem. It has
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been inside me since and today it has finally found its music, in my head - but most of all in
my heart.
Angélique Ionatos
Biography
Born in Athens Angélique Ionatos left Greece in 1969 to settle in Belgium. She recorded her
first album, “Resurrection,” with her brother Photis in 1972, and won the French prize, “le
Prix de l’Academie Charles Cros.” This album marks the beginning of her career in France.
She went on to receive many other awards with her following albums, among them « I Palami
sou » (1978-SM) winning again “ le Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros” and she received the
same award two other times, in 1981 with « La Forêt des Hommes » (1981-SM) and finally in
1983 with « O Helios o Heliatoras » (1983-SM).
In 1984 She staged the poem « Marie des Brumes » from Odysseus Elytis at the Théâtre de la
Ville (1984-Th. Sartrouville-Auvidis) - a two voice cantata with an orchestra, conducted by
Alexandre Myrat and arranged by Daniel Barda, accompanied on stage by baritone, Spyros
Sakkas. The record received the award “Le Grand Prix Audiovisuel de l’Europe .» This was
the last showpiece of Angélique’s solo tour.
Then came releases, « Récital » (1986-Th. Sartrouville-Auvidis) and « Monogramme »
(Sept sonnets d’amour d’O.Elytis / 1988-Th. Sartrouville-Auvidis) with Gustavo Beytelman,
the great Argentinian musician, conducting the orchestra. In 1989 she released the album
“Archipel” (1989-SM).
With the support of Odysseus Elytis, her favourite poet, Angélique Ionatos composed the
music and recorded the poem, « Sappho de Mytilène » (1991-Tempo-Auvidis). This album
received “le Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros » and was adapted as a play in 1992 at the
Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. « O Erotas » (1992-Tempo-Auvidis) was played at the French
venue, l’Olympia in 1993. Then followed «Mia Thalassa » music composed by Mikis
Théodorakis (1994-Tempo-Auvidis); « Parole de Juillet » (1997-Siviana-Mélodie) to
Odysseus Elytis’s poem. She was once again accompanied by her friend, Spyros Sakkas and
directed by Henri Agnel.for « Chansons Nomades » (1998-Siviana-Mélodie), « D’un Bleu
très Noir », (2000-Siviana/Naïve).
In 2003 she produced « la Maison de la Poésie » a musical reading « L’Alphabet de la mer ,»
a bridge between contemporary Elytis and the Antique female poet, Sappho (7th and 6th
centuries before JC).
She staged « Alas pa’volar » (2003-Naïve) at the Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris where she
adapted lyrics from Frida Kahlo’s journal, to music composed by Christian Boissel.
In 2004, for the first time, she released a compilation of her best songs: « Anthologia » (2004Naïve).
In 2005, Angélique Ionatos sang « Athènes Paris Via… » at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
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