“I am the modern widow / who gets drunk in the tavern / and goes everywhere in the evenings / and parties with the Hawaiians.”
Pangiotis Tountas wrote that in the early 1930s and Ismini Diatsentou sang it, as she sang many Tountas compositions. (Diatsentou recorded Modern Widow in 1931; Rosa Eskanezi released her version a year later. I have no idea why “Hawaiians”.)
Diatsentou (also known in the archives by the last names Diatsente or Diatsinto or Petrou or Xirelli, according to one source), was a young mezzo-soprano who came out of a Greek conservatory and was attached to the Athens Theatre. While primarily a theatrical singer, she lent her voice to rebetiko: of the 40 recordings in her discography, most are compositions by Tountas, one of the leading composers of the time, particularly in the Smyrneika style.
Diatsentou performed in Greece and the U.S. throughout the 1930s and ’40s, by herself or with her husband Titos Xirellis. She sang in concert, in theatre and in opera.
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