Mikis Theodorakis

Mikis Theodorakis by Wassilis Aswestopoulos

Without glasses, 92-year-old Mikis Theodorakis reads news on a tablet, comments on it, and shares analogies from lived history. Theodorakis was a partisan, an exile, and he survived brutal torture as well as companions like Fidel Castro and Moshe Dayan. His home is bustling with visitors. Politicians, musicians, friends, and journalists seek advice from Greece's living legend. Dogs abandoned by their former owners find shelter here. "They are like me, old and fragile," says the man who flirts with his own mortality. Nevertheless, he is making plans. This summer, he has a concert tour in Germany lined up. "Those born in Germany are lucky! They grow up in a country with less envy," he philosophizes, sharing his dream of finally seeing the eternally divided Greeks united. His music has brought together many things and many people. He combined the bouzouki, the long-banned instrument of the Greeks of Asia Minor, with the dance he invented, the Sirtaki. Theodorakis' setting of the Mauthausen Cantata by concentration camp survivor Jakovos Kambanellis is a beacon for the love of the victims of one of humanity's darkest periods. Theodorakis provokes with contrasts to achieve unity. And he shares this through words, music, and actions.