Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù, translated as The Noble Theatre of Saint James of Corfu, or simply Teatro di San Giacomo, was a theatre in Corfu

Corfu

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 which became the centre of Greek opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 between 1733 and 1893. Despite its provincial origins it attracted Italian musicians and composers, many of whom became permanent residents of Corfu and contributed to the local music scene. The theatre acted as a catalyst in this cultural interaction and gave impetus to the development of the Ionian School of Music. Corfiot composer Nikolaos Halikiopoulos Mantzaros

Nikolaos Mantzaros

Nikolaos Halikiopoulos Mantzaros was a Greek composer born in Corfu and the major representative of the so called Ionian School of music...

 was a beneficiary of the synergy

Synergy

Synergy may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.The term synergy comes from the Greek word from , , meaning "working together".-Definitions and usages:...

 between the Italian and Corfiot musical traditions.

History

Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo was named after a Catholic cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

 in Corfu. Established in 1693 as a gathering place of the Venetian nobility of Corfu it was converted into a theatre in 1720 and became the first modern theatre to be established in Greece. Initially the theatre staged theatrical plays but in 1733 an opera was performed there for the first time. The opera was A. Aurelli’s Gerone, tiranno di Siracusa. The operas were continuously staged especially between 1771 and 1892 when the theatre was converted to a City Hall

City hall

In local government, a city hall, town hall or a municipal building or civic centre, is the chief administrative building of a city...

.

The musical tradition established by the theatre is especially important to the history of modern Greek music since it helped establish a Greek musical presence at a time when the Greek State did not even exist. The theatre staged the type of comic opera known as opera buffa

Opera buffa

Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...

 which was less elaborate and therefore more economical than the full fledged opera seria

Opera seria

Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...

. San Giacomo's opera crews were mainly from southern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.
The opera house functioned during times of upheaval unabated as, for example, during the arrival of the French in 1797. In 1799, during the Russia

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

-Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 siege, the theatre continued its performances even as the foreign opera troupe was unable to leave the island due to the blockade. The performance at such a challenging time was used as a means for propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

 and to raise the morale of the population.

The theatre attracted many Italian professional musicians who came to Corfu as teachers as well as composers and performers. This had the effect of generating an appreciation for music among the locals and this gradually led to the appearance of the first Corfiot music professionals who, in turn, became the first professional musicians of modern Greece. Corfiot Spyridon Xyndas

Spyridon Xyndas

Spyridon Xyndas or Spiridione Xinda was a Greek composer and guitarist, whose last name has also been transliterated as "Xinta", "Xinda", "Xindas" and "Xyntas".-Biography:...

, for example, wrote the Greek opera O ypopsifios (The Parliamentary Candidate) which became the first opera composed on an exclusively Greek libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 and was performed at San Giacomo in 1867.

The oral tradition held that operatic performers who found success at the theater were distinguished with the accolade applaudito in Corfú ("applauded in Corfu") as a tribute to the discriminating musical taste of the island audience.

The theatre was replaced by the Municipal Theatre of Corfu

Municipal Theatre of Corfu

The Municipal Theatre of Corfu was τhe main theatre and opera house in Corfu, Greece, from 1902 to 1943. The theatre was the successor of the Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù, which became the Corfu city hall. It was destroyed during a Luftwaffe aerial bombardment in 1943...

 in 1902. The Municipal Theatre and its historical archives, many of which belonged to Teatro di San Giacomo, were destroyed during a Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

bombing raid in 1943.