A classic is born

Very few of us can be present when history is made, when a new work makes such a deep impression that it is clear to everyone that a classic has been born. The world premiere of Dimitra Trypani's "Amiliti/The Silent One" in Paxos on September 9 was such an occasion, a defining moment in Greek, and international, music-drama.

I imagine that in Ireland, the first performance in 1904 of J.M. Synge's "Riders to the Sea" would have had the same visceral impact on its audience, or in Russia, the November 4, 1943 premiere of Shostakovich's "Stalingrad Symphony."

Closer to home, the Athenian audiences for Sophocles' "Antigone" or Euripides' "Medea" would have discovered, for the first time, the truths of civic and personal betrayal, of conscience and silence, transfigured into art.

Dimitra Trypani is the most vital musical intelligence whom I, after a lifetime in the...