Diva Milva to sing at Athens Concert Hall
A doyenne of the music stage, Milva is scheduled to give two performances at the Athens Concert Hall early next week, on Monday, April 3 and Tuesday, April 4. Shortly before her upcoming performances, the great diva came to Athens for a few hours only to attend a press conference, where she spoke of her great love – singing -, about her future concerts around the world, on Brecht, Mikroutsikos and Theodorakis, but also about Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the upcoming elections. «Singing is my life, my job. I admire passionate artists, like Edith Piaf who, while being seriously ill, continued to sing, or Claudio Abbado, who went on conducting despite suffering from cancer. I have such a great desire to express myself and give what I have to other people,» said Milva, in her classic, expressive manner. At the age of 67, she still maintains both the appearance and the attitude of a real star: she is striking, overwhelming and imposing. Without warning, she switched from Italian to English and even managed to cram in a few Greek words, which she pronounced with great pride. Her Athens concerts are titled «Yesterday and Today,» a tilte, she said, which sums up her career. A varied program The program will include works by great Greek composers Mikis Theodorakis, Vangelis Papathanassiou and Thanos Mikroutsikos, with whom Milva has worked repeatedly in the past. She will also sing songs by Edith Piaf, Lucio Dalla, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ennio Morricone and Astor Piazzolla, as well as pieces that have featured over the course of her impressive musical career, from her albums «Milva canta Brecht» and «Mia Bella Napoli,» which compiles songs from Naples. She will also present her latest project, a collaboration with Italian poets and composers. Milva said she is very fond of Brecht. «I started singing works of his in 1965. Brecht saw, 50 years ago, what would happen today…» She also admitted being fond of Thanos Mikroutsikos. «The concert’s encore will be his ‘Thalassa’ (Sea), with lyrics by Lina Nikolakopoulou, so please let us all sing it together.» On the subject of politics, Milva said: «We are experiencing a time of madness in Italy,» she said, commenting on Berlusconi and the upcoming elections. «I was hoping that things would radically change with the elections. During the past few years with Berlusconi, I have not been involved with television, because he thinks I’m a communist.» Milva’s «Yesterday and Today» will travel to Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan. Despite her tight schedule, the diva gave an impish grin and assured the journalists present that she definitely also has a personal life. She revealed no more, but said that her daughter Martina, a 42-year-old history of art professor, is visiting Amman to study the work of a group of Muslim artists and that she herself will spend her summer holidays at Elounda in Crete.
