PANAYOTI KAROUSOS

ALEXANDER THE GREAT by Panayoti Karousos

The world premiere of Alexander the Great was in Montreal Canada the 20 October 2007

and the composer Panayoti Karousos gets a half hour standing ovation from the audience. Canadian dramatic mezzo Sophie Laganiere did an amazing work to the titanic role of Queen Olympias. Donald Lavergne as Alexander the Great gave all his emotion.

The opera represented in May 2008 in Chicago Illinois USA with the American Symphony Orchestra of Chicago under maestro David Stech with big success.

Critics acclaimed Karousos’s Alexander the Great as the greatest artistic achievement ever made for Greece greatest hero and from far history’s biggest conqueror.

Alexander the Great in Greek (Megas Alexandros), as a hero and conqueror inspired many artists through history from his contemporaries to our contemporaries. Handel compose the opera Alessandro a fiction story from Alexander the Great’s journey to India and on the same fiction Racine wrote the tragedy Alexandre le Grand.

British heavy metal band Iron Maiden made songs entitled Alexander the Great. Hollywood produce movies in an absurdit inferioriry in front of the Indian classic musical movie Sikandar. In the literature Alexander has more or less the same luck, from Plutarch to Fox, from Arrian to Peter Green in few exeptions like Droysen the books are not based in the historical truth and most of the times like in the Hollywood movies are comical. Some artistic paintings like Charles Le Brun and Hitler’s sculpture

Arno Breker statue of Alexander the Great give us a bridge to the glorious statues of Lysippos and the last paintings of Apelles.

The work of Panayoti Karousos when deep to Alexander’s dream, the eternal dream that makes humans heroes and demigods. Alexander here is the other side of Jesus to achieve same dream. To unites the entire world under the virtues of love, peace, equality and prosperity. Today they try to realize his chimerical dream with the globalization.