Editing Corfu (section)

====Teatro di San Giacomo====
{{Main|Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù}}
[[File:KerkyraDimarheio.jpg|thumb|[[Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù]] was the first theatre and opera house of modern Greece.]]

Under [[Republic of Venice|Venetian rule]], the Corfiotes developed a fervent appreciation of Italian opera, which was the real source of the extraordinary (given conditions in the mainland of [[Greece]]) musical development of the island during this era.<ref name="BirthofGreekopera">[http://www.donizettisociety.com/Articles/ArticleMantzaros/BirthofGreekopera.pdf Birth of Greek opera Paper] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016155757/http://www.donizettisociety.com/Articles/ArticleMantzaros/BirthofGreekopera.pdf |date=16 October 2015 }} Kostas Kardamis "San Giacomo and Greek ottocento"XI Convegno Annuale di Società Italiana di Musicologia [[Lecce]], 22–24 October 2004</ref> The opera house of Corfu during the 18th and 19th centuries was the [[Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù|Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo]], named after the neighbouring Catholic cathedral; it was later converted into the City Hall.<ref name="BirthofGreekopera"/> It was both the first theatre and first [[opera house]] of Greece in modern times and the place where the first Greek opera (based on an exclusively Greek [[libretto]]), [[Spyridon Xyndas]]' ''The Parliamentary Candidate'' was performed.<ref name="BirthofGreekopera"/> A long series of local composers, such as [[Nikolaos Mantzaros]], [[Spyridon Xyndas]], [[Antonio Liberali]], [[Domenico Padovani]], the [[Zante|Zakynthian]] [[Pavlos Carrer]], the [[Lambelet]] family, [[Spyridon Samaras]], and others, all developed careers intertwined with the theatre.<ref name="BirthofGreekopera"/> San Giacomo's place was taken by the Municipal Theatre in 1902, which maintained the operatic tradition vividly until its destruction during [[Axis occupation of Greece during World War II|German air raid]] in 1943.<ref name="BirthofGreekopera"/>

The first opera to be performed in the San Giacomo was in 1733 ("[[Hiero I|Gerone]], [[tyrant|tiranno]] di [[Syracuse, Sicily|Siracusa]]"),<ref name="BirthofGreekopera"/> and for almost two hundred years, between 1771 and 1943, nearly every major opera from the [[Italian culture|Italian]] tradition, as well as many others from Greek and French composers, were performed on the stage of the San Giacomo; this tradition continues to be reflected in Corfiote operatic history, a fixture in famous opera singers' itineraries.<ref name="History of the theatre">[https://web.archive.org/web/20080204022549/http://www.corfu.gr/en/profil/theatro.htm History of the theatre] from Corfu cityhall</ref>