Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Imagesīerlin had been awarded the 1936 Olympics before Hitler became chancellor, and he had been a fierce opponent of the Games. These remained part of the Games until 1948, and the idea lives on today in the cultural Olympiad.Ĭoubertin, who died in 1937, would go on to witness five more summer games – in Antwerp (1920), Paris (1924), Amsterdam (1928), Los Angeles (1932) and, infamously, Berlin (1936). There, artistic contests made it possible to win gold for poetry, painting, musical composition and architectural design. ‘How much more perfect the whole effect would have been if there had been one of those mass choirs which excel in England performing the incomparable cantatas of Handel?’ Thankfully, the 1912 Games in Stockholm were more to his liking. ‘I am continually astonished at the lack of interest shown in the idea of combining sports meetings and open air choral performances,’ he complained.
The opera was later believed lost after a wartime bombing raid destroyed the music publishing house which stored the scores, and only patient research by Greek conductor Byron Fidetzis pieced it together in time for the 2004 Athens Games, when it was performed at the cultural festival.Ĭoubertin himself wanted ceremonies which would set the Olympics apart from ‘mere world championships’ but was disappointed by London’s efforts in 1908. Samaras, meanwhile, would use the fanfare as the overture in his opera Rhea, a tragic tale of a mythological Olympic Games, which premiered shortly before the 1908 Games in London. Frenetic applause resounded from every part of the Stadion at the conclusion of this hymn, its repetition was unanimously demanded, the King himself expressed his warm approval by applauding vigorously.’ĭespite this early acclaim, the cantata was not used again at an opening ceremony for nearly 50 years. ‘The melody is slow and soft at the commencement, becomes gradually more lively, and ends in a triumphant crescendo swelled by all the voices and every instrument in the orchestra. ‘The composition of Mr Samaras created an immense sensation, and was applauded as it deserved,’ wrote the official report about the cantata’s performance, conducted by Samaras himself.
Greek poet Kostis Palamas added words ‘to give life to noble Games’. Organisers commissioned Spyridon Samaras from Corfu to write a cantata for the occasion, paying him 5,000 drachmas. For those first Games, there were no Olympic rings, nor was there a flame, but there was music.
Suitably inspired, they agreed to organise the first modern Olympic Games in Athens two years later. Those at the meeting heard the first choral performance of the ancient ‘Hymn to Apollo’, newly discovered in Delphi and set to music by Fauré.
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