They say that as great artists mature they begin to refine their work towards the greater part of their creative vision.
And if this is true then the great Eleftheria Arvanitaki, at 65 has refined her art into the smooth and distinctive soundtrack of love found, love lost, gained and unattained.
A soundtrack of decades that has characterised traditional Greek music in a sophisticated, artful approach incorporating elements of contemporary Greek, Jazz, Rebetiko, and the musical styles of various regions including Crete, the Aegean islands, and early 20th century Anatolia. This ‘entehno’ genre held artists such as Eleftheria Arvanitaki at its centre since it was created by its great composers in the 1950s and 60s.
With a career that began in the mid 70s, her collaborations have included the very likes of these masterful composers — Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarhakos and Manos Hadjidakis — her music has also seen her interpreting the work of Nobel Laureate Poet, Odysseas Elytis.
Today we say her name in the same breath as the greatest of Greek singers — Galani, Alexiou, Glykeria and Arvanitaki — fierce Greek musical women who are a league of their own.
In Melbourne on Saturday 25 March, playing to a packed Athenaeum Theatre, Eleftheria Arvanitaki commanded the attention of the audience for almost three spell-binding hours with renditions of the familiar, the obscure and honourable in her eloquent dedication to the great Tsitsanis before the intermission.
You would be forgiven as an observer, in thinking you were in a venue in the middle of Athens; the audience sang along to every song, danced in the aisles as is true to our collective Hellenic nature, and the excited chatter in between songs was very much the sound of a thriving Greek community of all ages, connecting to someone who has connected them back to the very root of who they are.
Many would call out the names of songs they wished to hear during the very short breaks between numbers, showing Ms Arvanitaki that her work has had a lasting and emotive impact.
With an ensemble band which included clarinets, percussions, the hauntingly beautiful sound of the Oud, guitars and harmonics, the audience was privy to renditions of her well known hits, new and old with many an opportunity to add their voices to a chorus which ‘Eleftheria’ happily obliged.
Leaving the venue the almost 900-strong crowd dwelled on Melbourne’s beautiful Collins Street on what was a balmy autumn evening, sharing their thrill, excitement and awe at witnessing the work of one of the greatest Greek singers of our time.
Eleftheria Arvanitaki plays Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on Friday 31 March.