Simone Séaille, daughter of Spéranza Calo, to who Kalomiris dedicated his symphonic poem The Death of the Valiant Woman. [© Hara Kalomiri]
Kalomiris composed The Death of the Valiant Woman, his symphonic poem in “ballet form”, as he called it, in 1943; he worked, however, on the piece after that date as well, during the years 1944 and 1945.
The piece is dedicated to the memory of the young Simone Séaille, both a friend and a comrade to Krino, the composer’s daughter, who had been arrested by the Germans for her participation in the French Resistance, and died in Theresienstadt concentration camp, shortly before France was liberated. Simone was the daughter of the singer Spéranza Calo (Elpida Kalogeropoulou), who was a good friend as well as a collaborator of Kalomiris, later becoming a relative of his too, since her son Jean, married Krino.
The Death of the Valiant Woman praises the bravery and self-sacrifice of the heroic Greek women who will fight the enemy with no less courage than that of the Greek men. Neither the time of action nor the enemy is clearly defined, but since the piece was composed in the middle of the German occupation it most probably refers to that historic period. The piece has an intensely epic character, its melody being based on the popular Dance of Zalongo [a popular dance-song which refers to the women of Souli in Epirus, who chose death rather than capture by the Albanians of Ali Pasha (1804)], which permeates the whole piece in its numerous variations. The work was first performed in 1943, transcribed for piano by Kalomiris, at the Rex, with Loukia Sakellariou as choreographer and leading dancer. In its orchestral form it was first performed by the Athens State Orchestra at the Olympia in 1945. It was conducted by the composer himself. Finally, the work was fully staged by the National Greek Opera, choreographed by Angelos Grimanis, with the composer once more conducting the piece.
By killing one of the enemies who had invaded her village early that morning, the Valiant Woman encourages the rest of the women to fight together with their men. She gets to the front line and fights beside her loved one, being badly wounded. Without letting anybody understand her pain, she fights on, heartening the other women also, until the enemy retreats. She leads the dance of victory together with the rest of the village women, only to sink to the ground, dead. Slowly, her death turns from lament to glorification, and everybody thinks that they can see Liberty rising imperiously on the horizon.
[Text by Myrto Economides, from booklet of the CD The Peddler / Rhapsody No. 1 (arr. G. Pierné for orchestra) & No. 2 "Song to the Night" (arr. B. Fidetzis for orchestra) / In St. Luke's Monastery / Minas the Rebel / The Death of the Valiant Woman, 2000, PHORMIGX 111100.]
Dance of Zalongo from English Wikipedia [link]
An example of the original song [link]
