Z (2016)
(music theatre based on the novel by Vassilis Vassilikos)

Z
A music theater by Minas Borboudakis
after the novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos
Libretto by Vangelis Hatziyannidis (2016/17)

Z is a political narrative about power, truth, and resistance. It begins with the murder of Greek pacifist and politician Grigoris Lambrakis – a crime that not only affects one person, but exposes an entire system. What starts as a public attack develops into a web of lies, intimidation, and state cover-ups.

At the center of it all is the character Z: a doctor, member of parliament, and pacifist - and, after his death, a symbol. Because Z does not disappear. His voice continues to resonate in questions of guilt and responsibility, courage and conformity, and the price of truth. The dead do not speak – and  yet they leave behind traces that cannot be erased.

The music structures Z's story as a multi-layered sound drama between reality and inner perception. It is the driving force behind the events, commentary, and independent narrative level all at once. From the beginning, it spans a space between wakefulness and dream, between political action and existential reflection.

In contrast, there are the monologues – by Z, his wife, the tiger, and later the reporter – which are carried by drawn-out, often timeless music. Here, time seems to stand still. Soundscapes, feedback, echo effects, and slow movements create an inner space in which memories, fears, doubts, and hopes become audible. The character of the woman in particular moves musically in this floating sphere between loss, love, and alienation.

After the intermission, the musical dramaturgy changes: linear narration increasingly recedes, and monologues gain more and more space in the action. In the music, reality and surrealism can no longer be clearly separated – a state that dissolves in the epilogue when Z's voice joins the choir.

In the finale, music becomes the vehicle for the idea of survival and resistance: the single voice becomes a polyphonic one, death becomes a presence. Z is an invitation to look and think further. A piece about the power of the individual – and about the fact that truth lives on even where people want to silence it.

Minas Borboudakis
Spring 2018
Translation by Edition Peters