Bohuslav Martinů’s opera The Greek Passion, here in the 1961 version, is based on the novel Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis. The opera develops the Christian doctrine of “love thy neighbour” ad absurdum, as a group of refugees are driven out of a little Greek village just as the village is putting on a Passion play for Holy Week. The opera is a pessimistic plea for humanity, made in the awareness that humanity must always wrestle anew with its own egoism. Director Simon Stone “creates a modern parable, somehow both contemporary and timeless” (The Times). For the last of his 16 operas, Martinů developed a tonal language which combined his early musical experiences with elements of Greek folklore, Greek Orthodox liturgy and dance music. Maxime Pascal, the 2014 winner of the Salzburg Festival’s annual Young Conductors Award and at the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker for the first time, “unfolds a musical and dramatic intensity that makes your hair stand on end, both in the tender outbursts and the violent ones. A maestro of his time” (Le Figaro).

Cast:
- Priest Grigoris: Gábor Bretz
- Manolios: Sebastian Kohlhepp
- Katerina: Sara Jakubiak
- Yannakos: Charles Workman
- Lenio: Christina Gansch
- Andonis: Matteo Ivan Rašić
- Michelis: Matthäus Schmidlechner
- Kostandis: Alejandro Baliñas Vieites
- Panais: Julian Hubbard
- Nikolio: Aljoscha Lennert
- An old woman: Helena Rasker
- Patriarcheas: Luke Stoker
- Ladas: Robert Dölle
- Priest Fotis: Łukasz Goliński
- An old man: Scott Wilde
- Despinio: Teona Todua

Recording date: Salzburg Festival, Felsenreitschule, August 2023
Sound format: PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1
Picture: NTSC, 16:9
Subtitles: English (original language), German, French, Korean, Japanese
Booklet: English, German, French
Total running time: 127 mins