The Gialino Theater, in the central zone of Athens, is an old-fashioned nightclub. Approximately 400 people seat at the tables distributed before the stage. They order drinks, ask for appetizers, some even risk having dinner. Many of them smoke, covering the auditorium with a mist that reminds the bas-fonds of old-time concerts.
Leia a versão em português:
Uma voz que canta a rebelião grega
The recital being performed suits the environment. Called Paris-Berlin, it presents two artists inspired by the duet between Liza Minelli and Joel Gray, leading figures of the renowned movie Cabaret (1972). It's a musical anthology of the 20th century, mixed with acid texts against the tight garrote of the French and German governments over today's Greece neck.
Rita Antonopoulou: one of the most applauded Greek singers
Of course the narrative is not comprehensible to the ones who don't know the language. But the repertoire talks to the memory and the heart of listeners of all languages. At the core of the show, a young singer thrills the audience with heartwarming interpretations of ditch classics. Old war or protest songs, Greek songs or songs from other parts of the world, mixed with love songs created in combat times.
The evening's star is Rita Antonopoulou. Her deep and powerful voice is the opposite, let's say, of the whispered and snobbish style of Carla Bruni, the French first lady. She fills the theater with electricity when singing Lili Marlene, made famous by another Marlene, the Dietrich, and reborn in the lips of Hanna Schigulla. She makes men and women cry with the glamorous Sous le ciel of Paris, by the legendary Edith Piaf.
Rita sings in French, English, Greek and German for almost three hours. She not only lends her voice to anthological songs, but she also risks new arrangements. After the classic version to Amsterdam, filled with the same density thought by its author, Jacques Brel, she dives into a new approach by the same author, this time made for Ne me quitte pas. She gives to the famous song an aggressive touch that may even bother the ones who appreciate the original intonation of pain and loss.
The concert is closed with traditional local chants, mostly protest songs. Rita leaves the stage and reaches the audience. Many people follow, side by side with her, renowned lyrics and melodies by Mikis Theodorakis, Thanos Mikroustsikos and other idols of the country's musical history in the 20th century. People seem to be taken by the desire to look, in the past, for a soundtrack that gives liveliness and poetry to the battles in which Greeks are involved today, fighting for survival towards the harsh wheel of the world's finances.
“My generation thought we had everything”, says the singer, born in Athens 33 years ago. “When Greece was incorporated to the European Union and the country was flooded with abundant credit, young people started to have the illusion of prosperity given by easy consumerism. This is over now”. Her father being a telecommunications worker and her mother a bank clerk, Rita still lives in Maroussi, a middle class area in the suburbs of Athens. Although her parents are fond of Pasok, the social democratic party, her criticism to the Greek society was only brought up by her musical career.
“Manhã de Carnaval”, by Luiz Bonfá
“I was an eighteen-year-old girl who liked rock, I listened to Bonny Tyler, Bon Jovi and a lot of pop music”, she says. “I wanted to go to Architecture School. I was not a rich or spoiled girl, I started to work early not to be a burden for my parents, but I was part of the golden youth of the 90's.”
On a certain day around 1996, she went to a bar with some colleagues to celebrate a friend's birthday. As she had always liked to hum songs, people insisted that she stepped up on stage to sing something to her birthday friend. She chose a folkloric song. Then she picked another song and then one more. At the end of the evening, she received an envelope from the owner of the place. It was the payment for her performance and an invitation to become the nightclub’s professional singer.
Rita started to sing at bars and cafes. She was then introduced, through a common acquaintance, to the composer Plessas Kraounakis, famous for his songs for the theater and the cinema, besides being an acknowledged left-wing intellectual. By interpreting his songs, she started to become known by critics and other composers. It did not take long until she had the opportunity – and the courage – to look for Thanos Mikroutsikos, one of the great minstrels of the Greek popular songbook and a left-wing musical exponent since the 1960's.
Maoist ex-militant and Minister of Culture (1994-1996) in Andreas Papandreu's government, Mikroutsikos soon transformed that beautiful blond green-eyed girl with deep tone into his main interpreter. Rita got a new repertoire and watched the record labels open their doors. Her three CDs were relatively successful and her voice started to be heard in radio stations and television programs. Some of her presentations, available at You Tube, have been watched by over five hundred net surfers. Whoever wants to find them should go to her Facebook page.
“Eleni”, by Thanos Mikroutsikos and Babis Tsikliropoulos
The singer has also included a good and varied package of foreign songs, not all of them sung in the recital Paris-Berlin. In her portfolio there is an extremely beautiful interpretation of Canção do Mar, written by Frederico de Brito and Ferrer Trindade to become immortalized by Dulces Pontes and Amália Rodrigues. Compositions by Astor Piazolla (Los pájaros perdidos) are also included, as well as a North-American spiritual classic, Sometimes I feel like a motherless child. We can also listen to her singing, with an almost bossa nova tenderness, the Brazilian song Manhã de Carnaval, by Luiz Bonfá.
“When I was at school, I got home and my grandmother only had dinner with me after watching one more chapter of Mulheres de Areia”, she tells, smiling. “I didn't have much contact with the Brazilian culture, but by watching this soap opera, without subtitles, I realized that it was relatively easy for me to learn languages and to reproduce sounds, even when I didn't understand the content”. This talent, helped by the good and bad twins performed at the soap opera by Glória Pires, gave her the peculiar characteristic of singing in several languages without the embarrassment of noisy accents.
In her 15-year-carreer, Rita built an identity that is strongly linked to the protest music, although her voice suits other styles as well. Until a few years ago, this road was difficult to be taken. “I've had, for a long time, the feeling that people liked my performance, but they saw me as someone from another time”, she recalls. “But the economic crisis, followed by demonstrations and strikes, is making the protest to become pop again.”
“Canção do Mar”, by Frederico de Brito and Ferrer Trindade
Although her growing success, partially due to the new political climate in the country, she does not feel conformed, a feeling that goes against the generalized idea saying that the country is boiling. “The young people have not understood what is going on yet”, she complains. “Most of them stay at home, a bit discouraged; they don't want to commit and fight against the cut in social rights and the destruction of the Greek sovereignty.”
Unhappy with her generation, she feels eager for musical militancy. Rita sings wherever she is invited to go: public acts, exhibitions to gather union funds, solidarity demonstrations. “Music is not only a way to register history”, she says, with the same soft and powerful tone she uses to sing. “Through songs, people find out about the world they live in and learn when it is time to do something to change it.”
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