Raised as a secular Israeli Jew in the conflict ridden city of Jerusalem, Gilad Atzmon witnessed and empathised with the daily sufferings of the Palestinian people and spent 20 years of his life trying to understand and resolve the ethnic tensions and strife of his native country. Finally, out of disillusionment, he moved away from Israel and went to England with the intention of studying philosophy.
Atzmon’s plans were redirected, however, when he met a talented drummer from his homeland and revived his dream of playing the music of the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe. Subsequently, Atzmon founded the Orient House Ensemble in London and started re-defining his own roots in the light of political reality. He now regards himself as a devoted political artist who expresses his convictions and aspirations through the musical medium.
Atzmon’s music is difficult to categorise and is best described as a cultural hybrid. On his latest album, Exile, Atzmon and his colleagues try to tell the story of Palestine, a country that they believe was stormed by radical Zionists in the 20th century. Problematised by how the Jews, as a people who themselves have suffered for so long, can inflict so much pain, Atzmon takes up traditional and nationalistic melodies and turns them around deliberately.
As a member of the Blockheads musical ensemble in 2000, Atzmon had the opportunity to record and performed with artists like Ian Dury, Robbie Williams, Sinead O’Connor and Paul McCartney.
He has awed his listeners with his reed playing and powerful personal style, which combines great bebop artistry with Middle-Eastern roots in a sophisticated, sometimes ironical manner. The Observer has written that Atzmon “creates his own cross cultural idiom” and Jazz UK finds his whirlwind approach “dynamic, charismatic and exasperating”.
Atzmon and his musical ensemble will grace Cyprus with two concerts during the holiday season and give audiences in Nicosia and Limassol the opportunity to savor live performances that are regarded as breathtaking and overwhelming.
Gilad Atzmon
December 27 at the Avlea Bar, Nicosia. December 28 at the JazzyB Café, Limassol. Both performances begin at 9pm. Tel: 99-605502.
Through a series of performances of a work by the Greek writer Thanassis Valtinos, Larnaca’s Theatro Skala will inaugurate their newly formed Second Stage. Through this creation, the Theatro Skala hopes to increase the repertoire of their company drawing a broader and more diverse audience to the theatre.
Adapted for the theatre from a novel by Valtinos, Wings of a Woodcock dramatises the surface of daily life that, at once, seduces and conceals the deeper turmoil of the human condition. The play follows the relationship between Yiannis and Rania and examines Rania’s voracious pursuit of a freedom she does not quite understand.
An esteemed and widely-read novelist, Valtinos was born in the Peloponnese in 1932 but has spent the bulk of his life in Athens. Along with having authored nine works of fiction, Valtinos is also an acclaimed playwright, screenwriter and translator of ancient Greek tragedies.
His translations of Euripides’ Trojan Women and Aeschylus’ Oresteia were performed at Epidaurus by the Art Theatre under the direction of Karolos Koun. In 1984, Valtinos received the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival for his work on Theodore Angelopoulos’ Journey to Kythira.
Greece’s highest literary award, the State Prize for the Novel, was conferred on him in 1990 for his novel Data from the Sixties. Valtinos has chaired the Hellenic Writers’ Association, for several years and his works have been translated and published in many countries, including Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Turkey and the US.
Directed by Christos Siopaxa, Theatro Skala’s production of the Wings of a Woodcock, will not only bring to life a work by an outstanding writer but will enrich the texture and depth of the dramatic arts on the island.
Wings of a Woodcock
Written by Thanassis Valtinos and performed by the Theatro Skala. December 26-27, every Sunday and Monday from January 9-31. Small Theatre, RIK. 8.30pm. Tel: 24-637952, 99-490102.
Celebrate the passing of Christmas and the count-down to the New Year with a concert by Rotting Christ, one of the founders of the Greek style of black metal.
The Rotting Christ story began in 1987 when the group formed under the influence of bands like Bathory, Venom and Celtic Frost. After the release of their first EP, Rotting Christ were closed a deal with a record company and continued to spread their unholy message. Just a few years later, the band was already considered among the world’s Black Metal elite.
With a primitive and raw sound combining black and death metal, Rotting Christ acquired a loyal following of fans and gained critical acclaim amongst enthusiasts of metal music. Their most recent album, Genesis, was recorded in 2002 and is a kind of return to the band’s roots, pushing the aggression of their music even further than the 2000 Khronos.
In every album and live performance, Rotting Christ renews their commitment to sonic brutality and keep on exploring and enhancing their unique blend of raging black metal and infectious melodies to create their foreboding music.
Though the members of Rotting Christ were still teenagers when they began sharing their musical vision with the public, its three principal young members devoted themselves most faithfully to the band and have endured the passing of time, continuing to perform and record prolifically. Known by the pseudonyms of Necromayhem, Mutilator and Necrosauron, the musicians of Rotting Christ will visit Cyprus this Sunday for one exclusive performance and share the stage with the local band Arkhon.
Rotting Christ
December 26. Treno Club, 10pm. £12 includes drink. Tel: 99-587553, 99-682354.
Four more performances of Christopher Hampton’s Total Eclipse will be given in Nicosia next week, offering audiences just a few more opportunities to view the captivating love story of two great French poets before the production heads for Limassol and Paphos.
After last year’s successful staging of the hit play Art, Alpha Square productions decided to present Hampton’s Total Eclipse, a tale of talent, destruction and debauchery based on the lives of Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.
Written in 1968 and adapted into a movie in 1995, Total Eclipse begins with the first encounter between Rimbaud and Verlaine. Fascinated by the young Rimbaud’s unorthodox poetry, Verlaine invites him to his home in Paris. But when the unruly and audacious Rimbaud finally arrives, he causes a great disruption in Verlaine’s house and effectively seduces the married man with his callous genius. Travelling between Paris, Brussles and London, the two French literary giants embark on an extraordinary odyssey of body, mind and soul.
Audacious, demanding and provocative, Total Eclipse is a story about a volatile romantic triangle and the lives it consumes. It illustrates the brutality of love and the constantly warring creative and destructive forces that exist within the artist.
Directed by Andreas Christodoulides of Theatro Ena and designed by Stavros Antonopoulos, Total Eclipse will be performed in English and stars Paul Stewart, Andreas Araouzos, Alexia Paraskeva, Penny Loizou, Bryan Ayres, Tessa Kolessides and Orestis Sophocleous.
Total Eclipse
Written by Peter Hampton and directed by Andreas Christodoulides. December 13-30. Mon-Thurs. Theatre Ena, Nicosia. January 3 at the Patticheon Municipal Theatre, Limassol. December 4 at the Markideon Municipal Theatre, Paphos. All performances begin at 8pm. Tickets £8. In English. Tel: 22-348203, 22-439838.
