Grecian jewel

I am sitting in the town square of Hermoupolis, capital of the Greek island of Syros, when I am approached with great courtesy by a gentleman carrying a bundle of papers, on the top of which I can make out the words Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach. It is the island’s Head of Cultural Affairs, Nikos Almpanopoulos, due for his weekly piano lesson after the drink we have arranged to have together.

I had heard, before visiting Syros, that it has the unusual distinction of possessing an opera house, a perfect miniature of La Scala in Milan. When I put this to Mr Almpanopoulos he permits himself a small sigh: ‘That is not strictly true. It has often been called La Piccola Scala but it’s not an exact model.’ And the Apollo Theatre does indeed turn out to be a tiny little jewel of an opera house, with seats for 300, in the 19th-century classic Italian style. It’s not a direct copy but has touches of La Scala about it, and of the San Carlo in Naples as well as the Pergola in Florence.

During the early-19th century the opera- and theatre-hungry citizens of Syros had made do with performances given by travelling companies in all sorts of makeshift venues, from coffee shops to old timber warehouses. In 1861 the Municipal Council agreed to support the building of an opera house and in 1864 it opened with an inaugural performance of Donizetti’s La favorita. The annual opera season became enormously popular, not least because a great many Italians found Syros a convenient stopping-off point en route to the Middle and Far East. They packed the theatre through the spring and summer months and the audience became known, not just for its cultural appetite but for its dazzling fashions and high chic. During the early years of the 20th century, most of Greece’s most famous stage actors performed here as well.

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