A product of Samaras’s operatic maturity, Tigra, heard here in a faithfully orchestrated version by Byron Fidetzis, is a ravishing love story set in medieval Venice. With its innovative harmonic language, musical Orientalism, and Franco-Italian influences, it helped pave the way for the emerging Greek National School. Epinikeia is reminiscent of Samaras’s famous Olympic Anthem of 1896, while Chitarrata is a youthful work composed in Paris. World premiere recordings.