Biography
The music for the Olympic Anthem premiered at the 1896 Games in Athens came from Spyridon Samaras, and the composition remains in regular use at opening ceremonies. Across his career the composer produced numerous Italian and Greek operas together with operettas; one of the operas carried a libretto supplied by Luigi Illica, the frequent collaborator of Puccini. Although Samaras slipped into obscurity for decades following his death in 1917, fresh attention has emerged in the present century through multiple recordings, among them the 2024 release of his unfinished final opera Tigra.
Born on November 29, 1861, in Corfu as Spyridon Samaras—also styled Spyros Samaras, Spiro Samaras, or simply Samara—the future musician was the son of diplomat Skarlatos Samaras. Early signs of ability led to lessons with composer and guitarist Spyridon Xyndas. From 1875 to 1882 he attended the Athens Conservatory, where his instructors were Federico Bolognini, Angelo Mascheroni, and Enrico Stancampiano. While still a teenager he saw his first opera, Torpillae, staged in 1879, though the score has since vanished. In 1882 he relocated to Paris for study at the Conservatoire, working principally with Jules Massenet, Léo Delibes, Charles Gounod, and Théodore Dubois. Returning to Italy in 1885, he achieved his first notable success the next year when Flora mirabilis reached the stage in Milan.
La martire, given in Naples and Milan during 1894, featured a text by Luigi Illica—the same writer who supplied Puccini with the librettos for La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. Two years afterward, International Olympic Committee president Demetrius Vikelas commissioned Samaras to set Kostis Palamas’s verses for the inaugural Olympic Hymn, a work that continues to be performed. In total Samaras completed fifteen operas. He resettled in Greece in 1911 with hopes of a professorship at the Athens Conservatory, yet the post went elsewhere because his output was judged excessively Italian in character. During his final years he concentrated on Greek-language operetta. Samaras died in Athens on April 7, 1917. After a long period of neglect, several of his operas have been recorded in the twenty-first century, most recently the unfinished Tigra from 1911.
Born on November 29, 1861, in Corfu as Spyridon Samaras—also styled Spyros Samaras, Spiro Samaras, or simply Samara—the future musician was the son of diplomat Skarlatos Samaras. Early signs of ability led to lessons with composer and guitarist Spyridon Xyndas. From 1875 to 1882 he attended the Athens Conservatory, where his instructors were Federico Bolognini, Angelo Mascheroni, and Enrico Stancampiano. While still a teenager he saw his first opera, Torpillae, staged in 1879, though the score has since vanished. In 1882 he relocated to Paris for study at the Conservatoire, working principally with Jules Massenet, Léo Delibes, Charles Gounod, and Théodore Dubois. Returning to Italy in 1885, he achieved his first notable success the next year when Flora mirabilis reached the stage in Milan.
La martire, given in Naples and Milan during 1894, featured a text by Luigi Illica—the same writer who supplied Puccini with the librettos for La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. Two years afterward, International Olympic Committee president Demetrius Vikelas commissioned Samaras to set Kostis Palamas’s verses for the inaugural Olympic Hymn, a work that continues to be performed. In total Samaras completed fifteen operas. He resettled in Greece in 1911 with hopes of a professorship at the Athens Conservatory, yet the post went elsewhere because his output was judged excessively Italian in character. During his final years he concentrated on Greek-language operetta. Samaras died in Athens on April 7, 1917. After a long period of neglect, several of his operas have been recorded in the twenty-first century, most recently the unfinished Tigra from 1911.
Albums
