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Rebetiko in Symphony | QPAC
May 3, 2023 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
$89 – $95
Rebetiko is storytelling spanning love, loss and heart-breaking refugee tales. Used to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music, Rebetiko was and remains the music of the poor and dispossessed in Greece, combining different musical styles with lyrics describing the joy, the sorrow, and the difficulties of everyday life. Often called ‘the Greek blues’, Rebetiko grew out of an urban subculture and reflected the harsh realities of an oppressed subculture’s lifestyle. Direct from Greece, Ifigeneia Ioannou will perform the classics from the 1983 film Rembetiko by Costas Ferris, which gained cult status in Greece and included music by Stavros Xarchakos. Ioannou, appearing in Australia for the very first time, will be accompanied by an orchestra conducted by the inimitable George Ellis. The performance will also feature music from iconic Greek composers Kostas Skarvelis, Vassilis Tsitsanis and Panayiotis Toundas, regarded as the leaders and founders of the Rebetiko movement; artists able to so beautifully capture through music the anguish, pain and eventual triumph associated with assimilation.
