“The very theme of Aristophanes' work – war, demagoguery, warmongering, and bravado – along with the characters it presents, makes it timelessly relevant... The aim of a comedy is not only to provide stimuli for thought but also to bring laughter. Thanks to the libretto by Papamarkou and its close connection with the music of Kyprou (and vice versa), laughter comes effortlessly to today’s Greek reader, listener, and viewer without needing explanations.”  From the introduction by Angelos Chaniotis

Peace is one of those works by Aristophanes that stands out for its complex architecture in both conception and execution. Artistic genres such as lyrical and epic poetry, various categories of drama, political and philosophical trends, linguistic idioms defined by social status, temperament, and education of the individual, the secular with the religious, the human with the divine, but primarily, it clashes with the revolutionary expression of the desire for life against compliance with an evil that seeks to replace normalcy.

These multiple dimensions of the work and their intersections with today’s reality were attempted to be highlighted by Nikos Kyprou and Dimosthenis Papamarkou through the interpretive scheme of musical comedy which, thanks to the organic interplay of music and language, manages to engage more fully with the dramaturgy of Aristophanic poetry.

The Peace of Aristophanes, composed by Nikos Kyprou, with a libretto by Dimosthenis Papamarkou and directed by Konstantinos Arvanitakis, was the first musical performance of ancient drama in the history of the National Theatre (Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2017). In this publication, the text of the libretto is accompanied by a CD with the musical sections of the performance, both sung and instrumental. The prologue note from the creators is complemented by an introduction from Angelos Chaniotis, Professor of Ancient History and Classical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.