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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 Seaille – both a friend and a comrade to Krino, the composer’s daughter – who had been arrested and executed by the Germans for her participation in the French Resistance, shortly before France was liberated. Simone had been the daughter of the singer Speranza Kalo (Elpida Kalogeropoulou), who was a good friend as well as a co-operator of Kalomiris’, later becoming a relative of his too, since her son Jean, married the composer’s daughter.
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 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 Zaloggo” tune, which permeates through the whole piece in its numerous variations.
The piece 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 Aggelos Grimanis, with the composer once
more conducting the piece.
By killing one of the enemies who 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, getting heavily 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 imperious on the horizon, while the hymn Christ Has Risen is heard everywhere…