From 1981, Theodorakis had started the "fourth period" of his musical writing, during which he returned to the symphonic music, while still going on to compose song-cycles. His most significant works written in these years are his "Second, Third, Fourth" and "Seventh Symphony", most of them being first performed in the former German Democratic Republic between 1982 and 1989. It was during this period that he received the Lenin Peace Prize. He composed his first opera Kostas Kariotakis (The Metamorphoses of Dionysus) and the ballet Zorba the Greek, premièred in the Arena of Verona during the Festival Verona 1988. During this period, he also wrote the five volumes of his autobiography: "The Ways of the Archangel" ("").