Sparagmos

Introduction

Margarita Liberaki (real name Margarita Lymberaki, 1919-2001) was a Greek novelist and playwright, who after a divorce moved to Paris in 1946. She is best known for her novels “The Trees” (1945) and “The Straw Hats” (also known as “Three Summers”, 1946), the last successfully adapted for television. In 1950 Liberaki wrote her novel “The Other Alexander”, after which she turned to writing for screen and theatre. She wrote among others the script for Jules Dassin’ film “Phaedra” (1962), starring Melina Mercouri.

“Sparagmos: La Passion d’Asterios” is a stage play by Liberaki and first performed on the 1st of August 1973 at the Cour d'Honneur du Palais des Papes in Avignon (France), as part of the 27th festival of Avignon. The title of the dance performance refers to a Greek mythical ritual to sacrifice a living animal or even a human by dismemberment. In total it was staged four times at the festival.

Vangelis composed original music for the dances, as is confirmed by a list of his publisher, Spheric, as well as by a 1974 interview in magazine “Melody Maker”, where author Steve Lake wrote: “To underline his point, Vangelis plays a number of tapes and videos to illustrate the range of his inventiveness... Best of all is some soundtrack work that Vangelis has done to accompany modern dance and Greek tragedy. Like nothing else I've heard, it's very pure and quite breathtakingly beautiful.”. Considering the timing, this undoubtedly refers to “Sparagmos”.

Credits