Opera for Five
Opera for Five (Greek: Οπερα για πέντε) is an unproduced and unrecorded work written by Manos Hadjidakis in New York between 1969 and 1971. Not a traditional opera, it was said to be closer to a musical; with five characters and music played by a five-piece band. The title is a reference to Bertolt Brecht's "Threepenny Opera" ("Die Dreigroschenoper") whose Greek title is "Opera of Five" (Όπερα της πεντάρας).
Background
In 1966 Hadjidakis moved to the United States from Greece for "purely tax reasons—it was revealed that [he] owed three and a half million to the state."
Hadjidakis' first rock collaboration was with The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble in 1968. They recorded his new soundtrack for the 1964 Turkish film "Dry Summer," which was to be re-released and re-titled "Reflections" in the United States. The music was rejected by film's producer and the band released it as an regular album in 1970—in part to get out of their recording contract with Atlantic. The album sold poorly and the film took until 1975 to be re-released.[1]
Hadjidakis' first choice for the female lead was Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane.
His first choice for the male lead was American singer-songwriter Emitt Rhodes.
For the five-piece band, Hadjidakis "invited [Mayo Thompson|Mayo] and [Steve Cunningham|Steve] to New York for discussions about a possible project," a rock opera with "the Red Krayola as the backing band."[2]
Amy Mims translated the libretto to English as it was written, via post, for over a year.
The only known audio documentation is two songs that were recorded to cassette and sent to Amy Mims in the mail, with Hadjidakis on the piano and Fleury Dantonakis singing in English. One of the songs is titled "Amanda", but the recording has not been released.
Recording and production
Cancelled recording
- 1971
- Producer: Teo Macero - producer for CBS
- Visual design:
Cancelled production
- 1972
- Director: Ludovic de Boer
- Maurice Huisman
- Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels
Cast
- Amanda: Fleury Dantonakis (Φλέρυ Νταντωνάκη)
- Don: Michael Kamen (Μάικλ Κάμεν)
- Sheila: unknown
- Unknown: unknown
- Unknown: unknown