PROMETHEUS BOUND BY PANAGIOTIS KAROUSOS AT THE OLD PARLIAMENT BUILDING OF GREECE

The Hellenic Literary Society and the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece of the National Historical Museum present the opera Prometheus Bound by Panagiotis Karousos.

"The Hellenic Literary Society begins an effort to broaden his artistic activities.

With great pleasure we welcome the opera Prometheus by Panagiotis Karousos based on the tragedy of Aeschylus, translated by John Gryparis. The presentation of the project in the Old Parliament House of Greece honored the creator and the HLS."

Paul Nathanael, president of the Hellenic Literary Society

Thursday 7 June, 2012 - 7:30pm at the Old Parliament House - 13 Stadiou Street, Athens.

Participants: Ilias Tiliakos, baritone (Prometheus) - Alexandra Mattheoudaki, soprano (Io) - Eleni Liona, mezzo-soprano (Violence - Goddess Athena) - Vassilis Assimakopoulos, bass (Hephaestus - Ocean - Jupiter).
Gennadios Bykov (violin), Eugenios Bensis (cello) Marilina Tzelepi (piano)

A few words about the work and its creator

The opera Prometheus by Panagiotis Karousos is a lyric drama based on the tragedy of Aeschylus Prometheus Bound translated by John Gryparis. 

The myth of Prometheus is always relevant and instructive brings man face to face in front of the dilemma of revolution over in each historical eras tyrannical power, or the destructive passive attitude. The philanthropist Prometheus as the first partisan revolt, for the sake of the people in power of Zeus, was trying to exterminate the human race. The composition follows an expressionistic lyrical tone, messages of Aeschylus for humanist Titan Prometheus, which the echoes of the myth comes to us, affecting through Christianity the fourth of today's humanity. The Karousos opera "Prometheus" use neoromantic traditional harmony and counterpoint to consolidate the lyrical style of Aeschylus. The Greek-Canadian composer Mr. Panagiotis Karousos, excels in Canada from which it has been awarded for his contribution to art.

The opera was represented with a government grant in 1996 in French at theatre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts.

Prometheus is the first work of the Greek Tetralogy, focusing on the flame, which is the ancient Greek spirit. In Prometheus, the flame has the mystical form, at the second opera The Olympic Flame, the form of civilization, in Alexander the Great the civilizing enlargement of mind, and finally at the Light of Christianity or The Fire of Catharsis the purifying flame. In April 2008 Panayiotis Karousos presented Prometheus in New York in English under the direction of maestro Grant Gilman, and in November 2008 the production of Prometheus went to Washington DC.

In Greece, Prometheus presented in the Municipal Theatre of Holargos (November 2010), at the Municipal Theatre of Argostoli, Kefalonia (July 2011), at the Mount Olympus festival (Summer 2011), at the Hellenic Literary Society (January 2012), and at the Parnassos Concert Hall (February and March 2012).

Mr. Karousos also has been awarded by the Federal Government of Canada for his works Liberty Symphony and Piano Concerto, and from the City of Montreal for his Suite Montrealaise.