About the work
The Greek Passion (Czech Řecké pašije) is an opera in four acts by Bohuslav Martinů, to his own English libretto after the novel "Christ Recrucified" by Nikos Kazantzakis. It is the composer's last great stage work. The opera exists in two fundamentally different versions: the second version was premiered on 9 June 1961 at the Stadttheater Zürich, while the original first version was not staged until 1999 at the Bregenz Festival.
Plot
In the Greek village of Lykovrissi under Ottoman rule, at the time of the Greco-Turkish War of the early 1920s, the inhabitants prepare a Passion play for Easter. The roles are assigned: the gentle shepherd Manolios is to play Christ, others Judas, Peter or Mary Magdalene. Manolios takes his task so seriously that he begins to live like Christ. When a group of refugees, driven from their homeland by the Turks, arrives in the village and begs for help, Manolios takes up their cause and wins over some of the villagers. But the priest Grigoris and the wealthy notables turn against him. The actor of Christ becomes a real outcast: Manolios is excommunicated and finally slain in the church by his own people — the Passion becomes reality.
Cultural significance
The Greek Passion is regarded as Martinů's most important and most personal stage work. The original first version had been rejected as too radical by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1957 and then by Zurich, whereupon the composer thoroughly reworked it. The music combines Greek folk tunes and Byzantine church chant with Martinů's Czech-inflected idiom; the great choral movements at the beginning and end are among its most impressive parts. The work treats timelessly topical questions of solidarity, flight and xenophobia and appears regularly on the schedules of European opera houses.