<<  -- 3 --  David Wilkins    Plea for peace

The arrival of the other women, summoned by Lysistrata to seal the fate of frustration for the absent combatants, is accompanied by much flouncing about that has, appropriately, about the sexual sophistication of a vaudeville routine. Loved the hats and enjoyed, too, the Quartet of Lysistrata with Cleonice (Ludmila Semciuk), Lampito (Alexandra Papadjiakou) and Myrrinhe (Marina Vouloyanni -- who seemed especially exposed by the odd amplification quirk).

The music takes on a rhythmic propulsion that's quite American around this point. There were a number of nods in the direction of a work like Bernstein's Mass or A White House Cantata during the evening. The 'persuasion' scene when the resistant women who, like Cleonice, '...would walk on burning coals, but give up the sweetness of a man, never!' are wheedled around to Lysistrata's plan is, by turns, folksy then sweetly sentimental and quite affecting.

After some thirty minutes (and the Poet's proclamation that, 'Holy and limitless is the light of Peace!'), the weaker sex (alas, poor men) begin to make their entry. Dmitris Kavrakos sings powerfully enough as Coryphaeus -- especially given that he is accompanied by a brassy orchestration with increasing percussion involvement that enables you to place a tick by Kurt Weill on the influence list. The sound of the bouzouki, though, is not long away to remind you that Athens can seduce with sounds more rarefied than those of Berlin.

Continue >>