Athens Epidaurus Festival 2026

Manos X’s America – Part II

First Part

Giorgos-Emmanuel Lazaridis | Rhythmology

Second Part

Raining Pleasure | Reflections

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

On June 17, as part of the “Farewell Celebrations” at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, we will once again encounter the wonderful Manos Hadjidakis. And we will experience the depth and richness of his musical genius, enchanted by the brilliance of his exquisite musical reflections cast upon the columns of the Roman odeon. And if we turn our gaze to the starry sky, perhaps we will recognize within its constellation patterns the eternal Hadjidakis. The everlasting one.

In this special concert, Raining Pleasure present Reflections—twenty-two years after recording the album in Cologne, featuring David Lynch and Elli Paspala on the closing track Noble Dame—while Giorgos-Emmanuel Lazaridis performs Rhythmology, six pairs of pieces for solo piano.

Manos Hadjidakis in America
Works and Days

Manos Hadjidakis left for America at the end of 1966 in connection with the musical Ilya Darling by Jules Dassin, for which he composed the music.

His stay in New York during a turbulent yet creatively fertile period (1966–1972) brought Hadjidakis into contact with legendary musical figures of the era, such as Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, as well as with a new and radical kind of music being created by young artists who “held in their hands the materials of another world,” or so they believed.

Within this environment, Hadjidakis sought ways to engage with contemporary musical reality without distancing himself from the deep core of his own musical language.

His introduction to the New York Rock & Roll Ensemble during a visit to Atlantic Studios proved decisive: their classical training and rock energy sparked a creative dialogue that soon developed into an independent artistic form.

Reflections was released, capturing one of the most distinctive moments of Hadjidakis’s American period.

During the same period, Hadjidakis completed Rhythmology, a work balancing memory and abstraction, which he recorded in New York in 1971. Rhythmology stands as one of the most idiosyncratic and introspective works of his creative journey.

Reflections, Raining Pleasure
A Contemporary Reflection of a Musical Genius

Living amid an unprecedented musical renaissance in America, Hadjidakis could not leave behind his desire to become part of this explosive process himself—to immerse himself in this musical ferment and embrace the new spirit burning around him. In the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, he found exactly what he was looking for. At the core of the group were three Juilliard students with uncompromising classical training and virtuosity on multiple instruments: Michael Kamen (keyboards, oboe, vocals), Dorian Rudnytsky (bass, cello, vocals), and Martin Fulterman [who later pursued a career under the name Mark Snow] (drums, oboe, vocals), along with two rock musicians, Clifton Nivison (guitar, vocals) and Brian Corrigan (rhythm guitar, vocals). The meeting of their fertile electric energy with Hadjidakis’s early Baroque touches gave life to one of the most unusual albums of the era, blending progressive rock with the deep popular sensibility that was a hallmark of the composer’s style. Reflections achieved universality: Greekness and cosmopolitanism united in a single musical composition.

Thirty-four years later, in 2005, Raining Pleasure—a band distinguished by innate melodic sensitivity and a European musical outlook—presented Reflections in an exceptional way, a project that both established them firmly within the Greek music scene and opened new paths of recognition abroad.

The band was formed in Patras in 1990, initially under the name Rest In Peace. In 1991 they renamed themselves Raining Pleasure after the song of the same name by the Australian band The Triffids. Their debut album, Memory Comes Back, was released in 1996, followed by their second album, Nostalgia, in 1998. In 2000 they released the EP Capricorn, whose title track became a nationwide radio hit, while in 2001 they released the album Flood, which established them as the most popular Greek English-language rock/pop band.
This was followed in 2003 by the album Forwards + Backwards, which showcased a richer sonic perspective and received positive reviews. In 2004, accepting a proposal from the son of Manos Hadjidakis, they recorded the legendary Reflections, which sold more than 35,000 copies. In 2007 they released the album Who’s Gonna Tell Juliet? In 2009 the band celebrated twenty years of artistic activity.

Twenty years after the release of the album that marked the commercial peak of Greece’s most successful English-language band, Raining Pleasure revisit this historic album from Manos Hadjidakis’s American period in a unique evening at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival tribute to the great Greek composer.

Raining Pleasure are: Vassilikos: vocals, guitar, bass; X-Jeremy: guitars; Jay: drums.

Rhythmology, A Game of Modes and Rhythms

Rhythmology, one of Manos Hadjidakis’s finest and most distinctive works, brings together six (6) piano pieces that stylistically borrow elements from Rebetiko song. Hadjidakis drew the titles of the pieces from the zodiac and the moon: “Hasapiko in Aries,” “Hasapiko of Taurus,” “Hasapiko of Gemini,” “Hasapiko in Aquarius,” “Hasapiko of the Moon,” and “Hasapiko in Virgo.” “Hasapiko of Gemini” bears the additional subtitle: “In the Style of Erik Satie.”

For Hadjidakis, Rhythmology “is a game of modes and rhythms,” as is his reference to the constellations. The work was recorded in New York in 1971 and released the same year, with artwork by Yannis Moralis.

In the album notes, Hadjidakis wrote: “From the very beginning I wanted to p l a y s e r i o u s l y, with odd rhythms and hasapiko dances among them, dependent on constellations. Above all, I wanted to rediscover very old ways—the Orthodox ones—of the bouzouki and Rebetiko songs. I think I was finally in a position to listen to them without emotional exaggeration, from a distance, more technically, and with all their profound erotic-religious content.”

Rhythmology was released in 1971, the year of the death of Nobel Prize-winning poet George Seferis. Hadjidakis wrote that “as I progressed with the design of the work, I kept thinking about the poet Seferis. He was the first to make us feel the significance of a serious game, through works such as Notebook of Exercises, which I first read when I was very young, precisely during the era of Melissanthi. The need to dedicate Rhythmology to him arose spontaneously. I simply never imagined that at this moment he would no longer be among us. Yet Rhythmology was not written to mourn him. It was written for a living Seferis who continues to live among us. For the poet Seferis who had the strength to speak, and when he spoke, he spoke simply, deeply, and in a profoundly Greek way.”

One can distinguish two dynamic trajectories converging in Rhythmology. First, the poetic dimension through its reference to Seferis—in the unity of language and rhythm. The fact that the work is written for piano does not negate, for Hadjidakis, its connection to Seferis’s poetic world. Secondly, there is the popular musical tradition through its reference to Rebetiko song.

This utterly distinctive work in Hadjidakis’s discography will be performed by pianist Giorgos-Emmanuel Lazaridis.

With thirty-five years of uninterrupted presence on the international music scene as a soloist, composer, and educator, Giorgos-Emmanuel Lazaridis has made a valuable artistic contribution to the interpretation and exploration of Hadjidakis’s musical idiom—a body of work that stands proudly alongside his broader international career and his reputation as one of the most formidable contemporary performers. His appearance on the evening of June 17 is expected to confirm once again that his performances stand “above comparison” (BBC Music Magazine, Adrian Jack) and are “so distinctive that they retain their uniqueness even when compared with great performances by Argerich, Horowitz, Brendel, and Zimerman” (Gramophone Magazine).

2026, The Year of Manos Hadjidakis

The Ministry of Culture has declared 2026 a commemorative year dedicated to Manos Hadjidakis, a small tribute of honor to “the great composer who dared, in the post-war era, to unite art music and tradition in exquisite musical creations, bringing popular music into the spotlight as well.”

June 17, 2026
An Evening Encounter with the Work of Manos H
Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The performance “Manos H’s America – Part II” takes place at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival.

Ticket Information

Advance ticket sales for the concert have begun.
All seats, in both the Lower and Upper Tiers, are numbered.

Ticket Prices

Lower Tier
VIP: €69
Zone A: €62
Zone B: €52
Zone C: €47

Upper Tier
Zone D: €42
Zone E: €36
Zone F: €31
Zone G: €20

Persons with Disabilities (PWD): €20

A specially designated area is available for persons with disabilities (Lower Tier, Section A, Rows 1–3). Tickets cost €20. Companion tickets also cost €20. Reservations at tameia@greekfestival.gr and by phone at +30 210 4834 913, Monday–Friday, 10:00–17:00.

Official Ticket Sales Points

Network: more.com
By phone: +30 211 7700 000
Authorized reseller network
Nova | Public | Evripidis Bookstores

Public Network
Public online: http://tickets.public.gr/
Public Stores
https://www.public.gr/templates/publicStorelocator.jsp

Athens Epidaurus Festival Call Center
Hours: Monday–Friday: 10:00–18:00 | Tel: +30 211 800 8181

ONLINE Booking: www.aefestival.gr

The CENTRAL BOX OFFICE of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, located at Syntagma Square, will open soon.
This is Athens – City of Athens Info Point
Opening Hours: Monday–Friday: 10:00–18:00

For the time being, the box office at Pireos 260 serves as the physical ticket sales point.

Herodeion Box Office & Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus Box Office: (Information regarding opening dates will follow.)

ATTENTION
The websites www.aefestival.gr and www.more.com are the only official ticket sales channels for Athens Epidaurus Festival events. Tickets purchased from unauthorized resellers or platforms will not be considered valid.

For further information, high-resolution photographic material, and full press coverage, please contact Iro Pastrikou at info@eropastrikou.gr.

“`