A separate solo concert took place on March 22 at the Aris Garufalis Hall. Athens Conservatory. Bassist performed on stage Alexander Stavrakakis, a graduate of a special conservatory, who today excels at some of the world’s greatest opera houses. Having won first prize at the 16th Tchaikovsky Competition (2019), he has already performed important roles in the repertoire on lyrical stages such as the Dresden State Opera, the Bolshoi Theater of Moscow, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bordeaux Opera. , the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He is expected to make his first appearance at the Bavarian State Opera and Paris Sattel in a few months.

In Athens, among many friends, as well as several music lovers informed of this event, he presented a non-opera program dedicated to the songs of Schubert and Mussorgsky. Dimitris Veziroglu accompanied him on the piano.

He performed the exemplary Songs and Dances of Death by Modest Mussorgsky.

“Non-opera” was a solo concert only on paper. In practice, Mussorgsky’s masterpiece cycle “Songs and Dances of Death” performed by Stavrakakis consists of four small scenes. Each of them is devoted to death poetically through images that reflect the experience that is not uncommon in Russia in the 19th century: infant death, young death, death in a drunken state and death in war. The singer takes on the role of the narrator, at the same time being asked to convey “realistically” the words of Haru, and in the case of “Lullaby”, also the words of a mother caring for her sick child.

It goes without saying that Alexandros Stavrakakis has a voice with an extremely beautiful timbre, rich, comfortable and strong throughout the entire range. Obviously, in this particular small room, it sounded even more impressive. What is not self-evident is the mastery of a specific instrument, as well as the comfort with which the singer stepped into the shoes of each new character each time. The first concerns the fact that Stavrakakis did not limit himself to one volume and one color, but varied his voice and adjusted the timbre to the music and text. Secondly, about the comfort with which he sang in Russian – the second “native” language in his own case – and, in addition, he conveyed with great expressiveness the nature of what he sang, lyricism, sarcasm, cynicism and humor. As regards the latter, the comic “Song of the Flea”, always by Mussorgsky, which was performed outside the program, was excellent.

Earlier, from Schubert’s “Swan Song” cycle, Stavrakakis performed six songs based on Heine’s verses. Moving between the lyrical “Talassa” and the highly dramatic “Sosia”, he proved that his exuberant talent can be tamed and with the same success reproduce works of completely different aesthetics. Undoubtedly, a singer who has all the makings for a great career.