Coincard

Mikis Theodorakis was born in 1925 on the island of Chios and died in 2021 in Athens. His work encompasses symphonies, chamber music, operas, oratorios, songs, as well as music for theatre and film. He became internationally known above all for his film score for “Alexis Sorbas” from 1964. The accompanying dance music shaped the perception of Greek music outside Greece for decades.

Theodorakis combined forms of European art music with Greek musical traditions. A special place is occupied by his settings of works by Greek poets, including Giannis Ritsos and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Odysseas Elytis. The work “Axion Esti”, based on a cycle of poems by Elytis, combines orchestra, choir, soloists and folk instruments. In the “Mauthausen Cantata”, he set texts by the writer and former concentration camp prisoner Iakovos Kambanellis to music. Many of his compositions thus also became part of Greek culture of remembrance and everyday life.

His public role was closely connected with the political conflicts of the 20th century. During the occupation of Greece in the Second World War, he joined the resistance. During the subsequent civil war, he was persecuted, imprisoned and deported to the prison island of Makronisos. After the military coup of 1967, the authorities banned his music. Theodorakis was arrested again and later released into exile. From there, he campaigned internationally against the Greek military dictatorship. After its end, he returned to Greece and later served several times as a Member of Parliament as well as, for a time, a member of the government.

The choice of Theodorakis for a state commemorative coin can be explained by this dual role: he was both a composer with international reach and a political figure and contemporary witness to the occupation, the civil war and the dictatorship. His life thus touches on several central periods of modern Greek history.