Apoxyomenos recomposed is a new music project and cooperation between the Croatian composer and singer Tamara Obrovac and the Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia, based on the pieces which Tamara Obrovac composed for the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb's ballet Apoksiomen in 2017.

Stefano Battaglia reharmonised Tamara's compositions and they acquired their final form during their team work in Siena, at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana when they were also recorded. The CD will be published during the 2024.
The songs' lyrics are in Ancient Greek and are based on the fragments of the verses from the Trojan Women by Euripides, chosen by the dramaturg Lada Kaštelan.

The first public performance of part of the musical material was on October 31, 2023, in the Orpheum hall in Graz as part of the Phono Femme festival.
The complete material was presented on the concert at the Istrian National Theater in Pula on February 14, 2024., and the following concerts  will take place at the Museum of Apoxyomenos, Mali Lošinj on April 26, 2024., and May 23., on Rovinj spring jazz festival.

The tragedy the Trojan Women which, with its theme of war and exile, unfortunately also corresponds to the modern times, evokes emotions such as sorrow, hopelessness, grief, abandonment, hope, nostalgia, resignation, unrest and revolt. And these feelings served as inspiration for the themes of the compositions.

The Project's artistic vision rests on Apoxyomenos (a young athlete's bronze statue, found in the sea near Mali Lošinj after 2000 years) as  a witness of the vanished civilisation, a symbol of a sunken world, an extinct language, a shipwreck and the metaphysics of the sea as a tomb, but at the same time also a source and continuation of life.

The melodiousness, but also the austerity of the Ancient Greek, have provided a new dimension to the creative work of this tandem, whose filigree interpretations opened a new spectrum of expression and also inspired a transformation of compositions into a different musical form, which also brings the classical music elements into their signature, characterised by a combination of contemporary jazz and improvised music.

Tamara and Stefano have been cooperating since 2018 in the TransAdriatic quartet, whose album TransAdriaticum was released in 2019 and on which Tamara, remaining faithful to her expression where she blends Istria and contemporary jazz, presented new compositions, written for a quartet of great musicians from the two neighbouring countries, Croatia and Italy, being particularly inspired by the original pianist signature of Stefano Battaglia, whose sensibility and poetics of expression are, also in this cooperation, beautifully complemented by the emotivity and expressiveness of Tamara's vocal.

Have a first listen on the part of the compositions from upcoming album:

______________________________________________

Ballet performance Apoxyomenos, Croatian National Theatre Zagreb, 07.11.2017.

"The ballet ensemble of Zagreb’s Croatian National Theatre triumphed Friday night with the premiere of the poetic, spiritual and multi-layered ballet performance Apoxyomenos choreographed by Brazilian-Belgian choreographer Claudio Bernard, whose strong spiritual framework and stimulus was added by the glorious music of Tamara Obrovac… Particular beauty and strength was brought to the performance by the magical and very emotional music of composer Tamara Obrovac, that sounded like the incorporation of all the strongest musical idioms of Mediterranean, from Africa to Dalmatia and Istria, and even jazz and electronic music… Without these compositions, that made your skin shiver and that pierced your soul directly, the ballet Apoxyomenos would not have been so impressive."