Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù, Opera house in Corfu, Greece
The Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù was a theatre in Corfu, Greece, established in 1693 as a gathering place for the Venetian nobility and converted into a theatre in 1720. It was the first modern theatre in Greece and became the centre of Greek opera between 1733 and 1893. The building and its historical archives were destroyed in a German Luftwaffe bombing raid in 1943.
The building was erected in 1693 under Venetian rule and converted into a theater in 1720. That transformation made it the first modern theater in Greece.
The theatre took its name from a Catholic cathedral in Corfu dedicated to Saint James. Its audiences favoured opera buffa, the lighter comic form, and its crews came mainly from southern Italy. Oral tradition held that singers who succeeded there earned the accolade applaudito in Corfù, a tribute to the islanders' demanding musical taste.
The theatre no longer stands: it was converted into a City Hall in 1892 and its successor, the Municipal Theatre of Corfu, was destroyed by a Luftwaffe air raid in 1943, together with the historical archives. Nothing of the San Giacomo stage survives on site, so visitors should look instead to Corfu's music collections for its records.
In 1867 the theater hosted the premiere of O Ypopsifios, an opera written entirely in Greek. It was the first time an opera with a Greek libretto was performed on a professional stage, marking a turning point for Greek-language music.
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