Zorba, represents the spirit of ecstatic, spontaneous will to live !
Background of the film : The narrator, a young Greek intellectual, resolves to set aside his books for a few months after being stung by the parting words of a friend, who has left for the Caucasus in order to help some ethnic Greeks who are undergoing persecution. He sets off for Crete in order to re-open a disused lignite mine and immerse himself in the world of peasants and working-class people. Just before his departure he makes the acquaintance of a mysterious 65-year-old man, Alexis Zorba, who persuades him to take him on as foreman.On arrival in Crete, they lodge at the ramshackle hotel of Madame Hortense, an old French courtesan, and start work on the mine — although the narrator cannot resist using spare moments to work on an unfinished manuscript about the life and thought of Buddha. Over the next few months Zorba profoundly influences the man he calls "Boss", and he comes to see this book as an exorcism rather than a celebration of the religious figure it describes.
The narrator absorbs a new zest for life from the people around him, but reversal and tragedy mar his stay, and, alienated by their harshness and amorality, he returns to the mainland.
The philosophical novel "Zorba the Greek" was written between 1941 and 1943 and published in 1946. Kazantzakis hero is a figure who represents both the untamed nature and the ancient wisdom. The hero became famous worldwide from
Anthony Quinn, Irene Pappas, Alan Bates and Lila Kedrova in the main roles. What remains though in the memory of millions of people who watched it is the music scores of the movie with the festive syrtaki dance of the end. A melody that turned into a hymn for the ebriety of amusement, freedom and joy of life.
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Background of the ballet :
Zorba is a symphonic ballet or a ballet-opera that was written on the behalf of the Verona Opera House, Italy, in 1987.
The characters surrounding Zorba are a beautiful widow who refuses to shut herself out of life and love, a young English writer who is charmed by the traditions of the small Cretan village and the vital force of Zorba's philosophy, and an old soubrette who lives through her fantasies.
In 1976 "Zorba" was presented in an early form by ELS in a choreography by Lorca Masin and with the music Theodorakis had composed for Kakoyiannis' film. Later, the composer selected various passages from his work, which he considered suitable for supporting Kazantzakis' hero.
He sent his scheme to the Verona Opera House, which accepted it and proposed the composer to orchestrate this scattered material. Theodorakis proceeded to the orchestration for a mixed choir, symphonic orchestra and two traditional instruments. The result was a first attempt to present traditional Greek music in a symphonic way of expression.
"Zorba" was staged in the Arena di Verona for the first time in 1988, with Vladimir Vasiliev in the main role, Luciana Savignano as the widow, Gheorghe Iancu as
the English writer, and Rosalba Garavelli as Ortance. Choreography was again Lorca Masin's and Sofia Mihailidou was the soloist. The performance had a
tremendous success. The theater was crammed to suffocation five times attracting in total an audience of 100.000. Because of that success, five more performances were staged two years later in Verona.