Legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis passes away at 96

By IANS

ATHENS: ‘Serpico’ and ‘Zorba the Greek’ music composer Mikis Theodorakis has died at 96. The beloved Greek composer’s rousing music and lifetime of political defiance gained acclaim overseas and impressed hundreds of thousands at residence.

The Greek flag was lowered to half-staff on the Acropolis as three days of nationwide mourning have been declared. Theodorakis’ demise at his residence in central Athens on Thursday was introduced on state tv and adopted a number of hospitalisations in recent times, largely for coronary heart therapy.

Theodorakis had a prolific profession that started on the age of 17. As a composer he started in earnest, as he labored in an enormous vary of genres from movie scores and ballet music to operas, in addition to chamber music, historical Greek tragedies and Greek folks, setting the work of main poets to music, together with Spain’s Federico Garcia Lorca and the Greek Nobel laureate Odysseas Elytis.

A music sequence based mostly on poems written by Nazi focus camp survivor Iakovos Kambanellis, ‘The Ballad of Mauthausen’, described the horrors of camp life and the Holocaust.

But it was the Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ ‘Zorba the Greek’ in 1964, and the slow-to-frenetic title rating by Theodorakis that made him a family title. The film starring Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, and Irene Pappas picked up three Academy Awards.

Fans of his music have been as various as his work. ‘The Beatles’ sang a canopy of his track and he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union.

But the towering man with trademark employee fits, hoarse voice, and wavy hair is also remembered by Greeks for his cussed opposition to post-war regimes that persecuted him and outlawed his music.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared three days of nationwide mourning, posting {a photograph} with Theodorakis at his residence following a current hospitalization.

“I had the honour of knowing him for many years and his advice has always been valuable to me, especially concerning the unity of our people and overcoming divisions,” Mitsotakis wrote.”The best way to honour him, a global Greek, is to live by that message. Mikis is our history.”

Born Michail Theodorakis on the jap Aegean island of Chios on July 29, 1925, he was uncovered to music and politics from a younger age.

Theodorakis started writing music and poetry in his teenagers, simply as Greece entered World War II. During the battle, he was arrested by the nation’s Italian and German occupiers for his involvement in Left-wing resistance teams.