Parabases/Readings with Christos Loulis in Vamvakou

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) readers’ theatre series, entitled PARABASES/READINGS, completes its cycle in Vamvakou with Christos Loulis on stage in a theatrical reading of excerpts from the poem “Erotokritos” by Vincenzo Cornaro.

Erotokritos, “a love poem composed by the ever-noble Vincenzo Cornaro”, as the byline on the cover of the first edition (Venice, 1713) goes, is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for iconic creators of modern Greece. Cornaro’s fascinating poem is written in the Cretan dialect; it combines scholarly and folk traditions and bears obvious influences from the Italian Renaissance. As early as the 17th century, it had already spread across the Peloponnese and the islands. People loved it so dearly that they memorized, recited, sang, or read it. To this day, “Erotokritos” continues to move readers deeply because it speaks the “language of the heart” and “is completely devoid of any trace of linguistic inflation, any kind of rhetoric,” as George Seferis observes in his acclaimed Essays [Dokimes].

“Erotokritos” by Vincenzo Cornaro, an SNFCC production, was presented in February 2024 at the Lighthouse as part of the series PARABASES/READINGS with the exclusive grant by Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)