The murderess, Giorgos Koumendakis’s new opera, directed by Alexandros Efklidis and conducted by Vassilis Christopoulos will be presented for the first time to the public on November 19 at the Athens Concert Hall.

The opera is based on Alexandros Papadiamantis’ “Murderess”, a masterwork of the Modern Greek literature. The action of the opera follows the action of the novella, focusing however on the essentials.

Hadoula or Frangoyannoù is the leading character; a wretched middle-aged woman who has spent her life serving others: her parents, her husband, her children, her grandchildren. Her exhaustion and the realization of the unfavorable position of women in poor, agrarian societies such as hers, leads her to the conviction that her mission in life is to free the world from the burden of girls. She sets about strangling her newly-born granddaughter and she commits yet again the crime of murder by drowning other girls too. The authorities pursue her in the mountains, and Frangoyannoù decides to confess her sins. However, in her effort to reach to the hermitage of Aghios Sostis, she is lost at sea.

The composer notes: “I allowed the music to wander and express without constraints the inner psyche of Frangoyannoù, reaching to areas that reason fails to see. I tried to reach for the hidden corners of the psychopathological, psychoneurotic, dynamic, austere and undoubtedly complex personality incarnated through the compelling approach of the Grand Papadiamantis. In fact, much too often, the dividing line between the heroine and the author fades, becoming a single character inside me. While I was composing The Murderess, I tried to forget her physical appearance, her age, the features of her face and turn to and reach out for the mind, which, according to Papadiamantis, “is exalted”.”