Lenia Zafiropoulou is an accomplished young singer specializing mainly in lieder recitals.
She studied singing, piano and lied at the famous Musikhochschule in Stuttgard, as well as opera at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the National Opera Studio in London.
She is also a musicologist and an accomplished writer, her collection of poems “Paternoster Square” received the award for a young writer of the ‘Reader” Magazine.
She has appeared in many Concert Halls and Opera Houses in Greece and abroad, and has received the Greek Critics Award in 2009.
Her new book is dedicated to a selection of poems by Goethe and Heine, the majority of which have been set to music by various composers.
A very informative introduction leads the reader to the dark and romantic world of German Romantic Poetry, with an extensive analysis not only of its historical and literary context, but of its musical setting by composers such as Brahms, Schumann, and Wolf amongst others, as well as a very well thought out and meticulously worked translation in Greek.
Most importantly the book also contains a cd with a selection of songs by Schubert Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann and Wolf. Her beautiful and ethereal voice manages to capture almost to perfection the spirit of both the poet and the composer allowing us to experience a most accomplished rendition of this very demanding repertoire which in Greece only a handful of singers can handle. She is accompanied by the very able and distinguished pianist Thodoris Tzovanakis and Lena Kitsopoulou who recites the poems.
All in all it is a very interesting book that fills a gap in Greek musical bibliography, especially since one has the opportunity to enjoy the voice of Lenia Zafiropoulou.
The book (240) pages is published by Pattakis Editions.