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By Peter Berresford Ellis

Christos, born in Alexandria in 1946, was himself something of a prodigy and studied violin under Bedelien. At the astonishing age of 13, he was playing in the first violins of the premier symphony orchestra of Cyprus under its famous conductor Yangos Michalides. By 1970, Christos, aged 24, was invited to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra in concert at the Albert Hall.

As a composer, Christos has continued his fascination with Irish musical traditions. He came to work with many Irish famous theatrical personalities, including the late Siobhan McKenna. She played Jocasta in a BBC production of Euripides’ The Phoenician Women. Christos wrote a musical setting for the play and was impressed by the power that Siobhan gave to the performance, synchronising it against his music.

When Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa was translated into Greek for production in that country, Christos was commissioned to write the musical setting.

In August, I was privileged to attend the opening performance of a new production of Euripides’ The Phoenician Women, performed at the spectacular 2,400-year-old amphitheatre of Epidavros on the Peloponnisos. The play was staged by The Cyprus Theatre Organisation as part of the Hellenic Festival. Nicos Charalambous directed and Christos had composed an entirely new musical setting.

Christos Pittas is now one of the most sought after composers working in the sphere of music, dance and drama. Many prominent European directors have sought to work with him, including Peter Brook.

The Phoenician Women was written between 412 and 408 BC, the play derives its name from the chorus of the Phoenician maidens who are on their way to the temple of Apollo at Delphi and witness the events. It is the longest Greek tragedy to survive and takes up the legend of Oedipus at the start of the quarrel between his two sons Polynices and Etecoles. The quarrel ends in a single combat between the brothers who kill each other.

Their mother Jocasta takes her own life with one of their swords. Jocasta’s brother Creon (who has supported Etecoles) banishes a now blind Oedipus and proclaims that Polynices’s body must remain unburied. Antigone, Polynices’ sister, swears she will secretly bury her brother and defies Creon by going into exile with her father. Thus the play is really an introduction to Euripides’ lost play Antigone although a similar play by Sophocles has survived.

Sitting in that ancient amphitheatre, high in the mountains, the performance started at 9pm, so the background was a truly star-studded one, it was so easy to be moved. I was moved; but not only by the atmosphere and the thought of all the people sitting where I sat some 2,400 years ago, perhaps watching this very play. I was moved by the emotional power of this production, by the cosmological design but, above all, by the vibrant almost primeval music of Christos Pittas without which I had a feeling that the production would have been greatly diminished.

The dialogue was translated into modern Greek by Michalis Pieros who had the artistic wisdom to leave all the lines of the chorus in the ancient Greek form, which enhanced the fascinating rhythmic quality of the dialogue.

Words are always inadequate when trying to give an understanding of musical experience. Yet it was precisely from the relationship between word, sound and rhythm that Christos Pittas derived his inspiration. Starting with electronic primeval sounds, the play bursts into life with the sounds of ‘real’ instruments played by five talented musicians, led by percussionist Nicolas Papageorgiou, and with the singers forming the chorus.

English language versions of Greek plays tend to use the chorus as an embarrassing intermission to the actors. Not so this production. The play could not work without the ‘Phoenician Women’. I think even Peter Hall (who recently staged Euripides’ The Bacchai at the National Theatre) could learn something from the way Charalambous and Pittas use the musicology of the chorus to such a dramatic and emotionally stimulating affect.

Time has not diminished the vibrancy of Christos Pittas’ music and I was delighted to find that his deep appreciation of Irish music and theatrical tradition is still an abiding one.

He hopes to soon be involved in a play about Cassandra but would like the part to go to an Irish actress who could match the talent of the great Siobhan McKenna. He is also keen to pursue Irish themes for he has long held that the Greek and Irish traditions share much in common.

The dynamic and vigorous motifs of Irish mythology have continued to intrigue him and he has often wondered why Irish playwrights have been fairly reticent about dramatising them in the way Greek playwrights have used their own myths. He views with excitement the idea of performing dramatised versions of Irish tragedies such as Oidheadh Chlainne LÌr (Fate of the Children of Lir) or romances such as TÛraigheacht Diarmada agus Ghrainne (The Pursuit of Diarmada and Grainne) with appropriate musical settings and staging.

Even Cath Maige Tuired (Battle of Moytura), the confrontation between the gods of light and darkness, is reminiscent of the Greek traditions of the defeat inflicted by Zeus and his Olympian gods on Cronus and his Titans.

Greek and Irish myths represent two very powerful traditions emanating from the Indo-European root, which is the birth of European culture. It is something to develop and be proud of it. The drama of the Irish myths should be far better known throughout Europe.

The production of The Phoenician Woman might soon be coming to Ireland or Britain. If so, I urge you to see it. If you don’t know Greek, forget the language, watch Isidoros Sideris’ compelling choreography and, above all, listen to the music which is such an integral part of the rhythm of the language communicating with emotions just as much as intellect.