Maria Farantouri or Farandouri (; born 28 November 1947 in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

) is a Greek singer and also a political and cultural activist. She has collaborated with Greek composers such as

Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films '' Zorba the Greek'' (1964), '' Z'' (1969), and '' Serpico'' (1973). He was a three-ti ...

, who wrote the score for

Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...

's ''

Canto General ''Canto General'' is Pablo Neruda, Pablo Neruda's tenth book of poems. It was first published in Mexico in 1950, by ''Talleres Gráficos de la Nación''. Neruda began to compose it in 1938. "Canto General" ("General Song") consists of 15 secti ...

'', which Farantouri performed worldwide. During the

Greek military junta of 1967–1974 The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels with CIA backing overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections wh ...

, Maria Farantouri recorded protest songs in Europe with Mikis Theodorakis. In 1971, she recorded ''Songs and Guitar Pieces by Theodorakis'' with Australian guitarist

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

which included seven poems by

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

. She has recorded songs in Spanish (' Hasta Siempre Comandante Che Guevara'), Italian, and English ("Joe Hill" and

Elisabeth Hauptmann Elisabeth Hauptmann (20 June 1897, Peckelsheim, Westphalia, German Empire – 20 April 1973, East Berlin) was a German writer who worked with fellow German playwright and director Bertolt Brecht. She got to know Brecht in 1922, the same year sh ...

's ''

Alabama Song The "Alabama Song"—also known as "Moon of Alabama", "Moon over Alabama", and "Whisky Bar"—is an English version of a song written by Bertolt Brecht and translated from German by his close collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925 and set to ...

'' from

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

's '' Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny''), George Gershwin's works, as well as works by Greek composers

Manos Hatzidakis Manos Hatzidakis (also spelled Hadjidakis; ; 23 October 1925 – 15 June 1994) was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music, widely regarded as one of the greatest Greek composers of all time. He was one of the main proponents of the " Ént ...

, Eleni Karaindrou and

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou (, ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; , ), was a Greek musician, composer, and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He composed ...

. Her voice is

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

with two octaves. The international press called her a people's Callas (The Daily Telegraph), and the Joan Baez of the Mediterranean (Le Monde). Maria Farantouri was an elected member of the Greek Parliament from 1989 to 1993 representing the

Panhellenic Socialist Movement The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK (; , ), is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was one of the two major parties in the country, along with New Democracy, its main political r ...

(PASOK).Libra Music
/ref> She is married to the poet and former politician Tilemachos Chytiris. On 23 September 2004, the President of the Hellenic Republic recognized the contribution of Maria Farantouri to Greek song, awarding her the Gold Cross of the Order of the Phoenix. She was awarded the ''Premio Tenco'' Italian Award 2014 for her contribution to international contemporary and traditional music, and the Spanish LiberPress 2017.

Discography

* John Williams Maria Farandouri: Mikis Theodorakis – Songs Of Freedom (1974) * Maria Farantouri: Mosaic (Libra, 2004) * Maria Farantouri: Live im Olympia (Plane, 1987) * Maria Farantouri: 17 Songs (EMI, 1990) * Maria Farantouri: Tou Feggariou Ta Pathi (Afieroma Sto Federico García Lorca) (Live concert 1996) * Maria Farantouri: Way Home (Peregrina, 2007) *

: Sinfonietta, Farantouri, Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra (Intuition, 1999) *

: The Ballad of Mauthausen-Farantouri Cycle (1966) *

: Poetica (Peregrina, 1998) *

: Asmata (Peregrina, 1998) *

: Canto General (various versions) *

: Pnevmatiko Emvatirio (Live at Royal Albert Hall, London 1971) *

Manos Hadjidakis Manos may refer to: Films * The Hands (film), ''The Hands'' (film) (Spanish: ''Las manos''), a 2006 Argentinean-Italian film * ''Manos: The Hands of Fate'', 1966 horror film Other uses * Manos (album), ''Manos'' (album), by The Spinanes * Manos (n ...

: The era of Mellisanthi (Lyra, 1981) * Eleni Karaindrou: '' Elegy of the Uprooting'' (ECM, 2005) * Charles Lloyd & Maria Farantouri: '' Athens Concert'' 2CDs (ECM, 2010) * Maria Farantouri: ''Maria Farantouri Sings

Taner Akyol Taner Akyol (born 1977) is a Turkish saz or bağlama player and classical composer. Biography Akyol was born in Bursa. He studied in Germany at the Brandenburgischen Colloquium für Neue Musik and the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler". In 2003 ...

'' – Maria Farantouri sings in Greek translation poems of the persecution suffered by the Kurdish people. *

Mauthausen Trilogy The "Mauthausen Trilogy", also known as "The Ballad of Mauthausen" and the "Mauthausen Cantata", is a cycle of four arias with lyrics based on poems written by Greek poet Iakovos Kambanellis, a Mauthausen concentration camp survivor, and music wr ...

(Plane, 2000) * Maria Farantouri: I Triti Porta (The Third Door). Music by Lena Platonos (Minos, 2000) * Maria Farantouri Sings George Gershwin (Legend, 2007) * Maria Farantouri: Afieroma Ston Miki Theodoraki (Melody Maker, 2008) * Maria Farantouri, Hthes Archisa na Tragoudo (I began Singing Yesterday) Live at Herodes Atticus Odeon, 2 CDs, DVD (Minos, 2014) * Maria Farantouri – Cihan Turkoglu, Beyond the Borders (ECM 2019)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Farantouri, Maria 1947 births Living people Singers from Athens Greek entehno singers 20th-century Greek women singers PASOK politicians Greek MPs 1990–1993 20th-century Greek women politicians 21st-century Greek women singers Politicians from Athens Gold Crosses of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece)