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Thanos Bourlos

Soloist, Baritone
He was born in Athens in 1911. He graduated from the Agricultural University of Athens. He studied at the Greek National Conservatoire under Smaragda Gennadi, and continued his studies at the Academy of Music Berlin on a scholarship from the Humboldt Foundation. He debuted in Greece with the Greek Melodrama company in the operas Mignon and Rigoletto (1937). He made his debut and began his international career in Germany, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin [The mother's ring/To dachtilidi tis manas], and immediately afterwards at the Theater Aachen [Fidelio] under the baton of Herbert von Karajan (1940). He sang in some 1426 operas and 286 concerts and radio broadcasts. He appeared in most German opera houses and, since 1940, sang in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Egypt and the former Yugoslavia. His repertoire included roles from the operas: The troubadour [Il trovatore], The magic flute [Die zauberflöte], La bohème, Carmen, Don Giovanni, etc. He is the author of the books: Music in Greece, At breaks [Sta dialimmata], With Manolis Kalomiris, Modern Opera 1982, etc. He participated in the film Eroika (1960), directed by Michalis Cacoyannis. His participation in the Delphic Games has been recorded on film (Gaziadis Bros, Delfikai Eortai: Prometheus Bound, 1927). He worked intensively on the dissemination of Greek music in Germany and served as director of the Greek Consulate in Nuremberg. He was honored with a Gold Medal at First Balkan Games (1930), as well as with the King George I Medal for the Albanian Epos and the Golden Cross of the Phoenix and Silver Cross of the city of Paris. His cooperation with the GNO involved his participation in the opera The Power of Fate [La forza del destino] in the 1950s. He died in Germany in 1998.