EMILIOS RIADIS: GALATEA

Opera in three acts
First world presentation in concert format in French with Greek surtitles. Libretto by Pierre Charles Jablonski
 
Emilios Riadis Galatea (concertante) (First world performance)
(1880-1935)
 
Emilios Riadis composed the Galatea opera during his stay in Paris, where he had started to become known in M. Ravel 's circle, who had even called him "my genius student".
Riadis completed the opera in Particell form, but for unknown reasons he orchestrated only the second act. With the outbreak of World War I, Riadis left the French capital to return to his hometown of Thessaloniki, where he was appointed a professor of piano and theory at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki. Since then, the opera remained in the composer's drawer and was never spoken of again.
 
During the recent Covid-19 pandemic and following the friendly prompting of my beloved colleague Byron Fidetzis, I decided to undertake the difficult task of restoring and orchestrating the first and third acts, so that this ambitious work by Emilios Riadis would become executable. I want to believe that the presentation of Galatea, 110 years after its composition, will contribute to the formation of a new perception of the importance of Riadis' work in the musical history of Greece, but also of the composer's place in the musical evolution of Europe, during the first fifteen years of the 20th century.
                                                                               Vladimir Symeonides


Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of Greece, in the framework of the program:
Thessaloniki-Sofia
Balkan Bridge of Culture