City in Greece. The earliest recorded performances of opera date from 1876; and in the 1880s and 1890s several Italian touring companies visited the city. Performances by touring Greek companies (primarily the Elliniko Melodrama) in the Municipal Theatre began in 1905. Between this date and 1989, 76 operas (including eight by Greek composers) were performed, either by the National Opera established in Athens in 1940 (see Kyrtsani) or by important foreign companies appearing annually between October and November at the Demetria Festival; in addition 43 operettas were performed between 1940 and 1983.
Attempts by Thessaloniki’s own institutions to produce opera have been sporadic. In 1930 the Thessaloniki State Conservatory presented Georgios Sklavos’s Kyra Frossyni and in 1932 Cavalleria rusticana, and it has more recently given fine performances of Mozart’s Apollo et Hyacinthus (1981), Weber’s Abu Hassan (1990) and Offenbach’s La belle Hélène. In 1977 Spyros Evanghelatos established the Opera Thessalonikis, affiliated to the Northern Greece State Theatre, the drama company of which he was head; performances took place in the company’s theatre (cap. 1050). Its first production, Fidelio, was given in January 1978 with players from the Thessaloniki State Orchestra, but after four years it had to abandon its activities for lack of funding. Among other operatic ventures have been those of the Opera Dhomatiou Thessalonikis (Thessaloniki Chamber Opera) and the Opera Dhomatiou Voriou Ellados (Chamber Opera of Northern Greece).
The first permanent orchestra in Thessaloniki was the Orchistra tou Kéndrou tou Lefkou Pyrgou (Orchestra of the White Tower Café, 1919–33), followed in the 1920s by the Macedonian SO and the Great Macedonian Mixed Chorus (1928), which performed Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Mendelssohn’s Athalie and Antigone. In 1959 the composer and conductor Solon Michaelides founded the Symphoniki Orchistra Voreiou Elladhos (Northern Greek SO), which later became the Kratiki Orchistra Thessalonikis (Thessaloniki State Orchestra): its subsequent directors were Georgios Thymis (1971–83), Alkis Baltas (1983–92), K. Galilaeas (1992–4) and Leonidas Kavakos (from 1995). The Symphoniki Orchistra tou Dhimou Thessalonikis (Thessaloniki Municipal SO), was founded, initially as a string ensemble, in 1987. In 1993 Dimitris Agrafiotis became its conductor. In 1999 the Aristoteles University founded a 43-member SO.
Thessaloniki represents the centre of Greek choral activity. For decades the Aristoteles University Chamber Choir and Instrumental Ensemble, founded in 1953 by chorus conductor Yannis Mandakas, was one of the city's most prestigious institutions.
In 1911 the composer Sotirios Graekos founded the first conservatory in northern Greece, which survived until the 1950s. In 1915 the Thessaloniki State Conservatory was founded: except for the music departments in Greek universities, it remains the only state institution of its kind in the country. In 1926 the conductor Epaminondas Floros founded the Makedhonikon Odheion (Macedonian Conservatory), which for decades played an important role in the city’s musical life. Thessaloniki’s other private conservatories today include the Odheio Voreiou Elladhos (Northern Greek Conservatory, founded 1942), Neo Odheio (New Conservatory, founded 1984) and the Synchrono Odheio (Contemporary Conservatory, founded 1985).
In 1966 the Demetria Festival, held annually in October and November was founded. In addition to bringing foreign ensembles to Thessaloniki it provides opportunities for local musicians. A second festival, inaugurated in 1969, is the Moussiki Evdhomadha Neon Kallitechnon (Young Artists’ Music Week), held annually in September as part of the Dhiethnis Moussikes Imeres (International Music Days). In 1997, when Thessaloniki was cultural capital of Europe, hundreds of concerts of all kinds took place in the city.
Thessaloniki’s main concert halls are the theatre of the Etaeria Makedhonikon Spoudon (Society of Macedonian Studies, cap. 1050) and hall of the Aristoteles University. Smaller halls include the Olympion cinema, the recently restored Moni Lazariston (Lazarists’ Monastery) and the Avlaea (Curtain) Theatre. Summer concerts are given at the open air amphitheatre in the Sheikh Su forest. The Megaro Moussikis (Thessaloniki Concert Hall, cap. 1476) was inaugurated in January 2000.
Y. Mandakas: ‘Syndamo hroniko fis moussikis zois tis Thessalonikis’ [A short Chronicle of the Musical Life in Salonica], Nea Estia, lxxiii (1963), 640–43
Odheion Thessalonikis 1915–1965 [Thessaloniki (State) Conservatory] (Thessaloniki, 1966)
D. Thémelis: ‘Moussiki zoi ke moussiki paedheia stin Thessaloniki’, Makedhonia-Thessaloniki, Afiéroma Tessarakondaetiridhos [Macedonia-Thessaloniki, a 40th Anniversary Commemorative Volume] (Thessaloniki, 1980)
Y. Kehayoglou, M. Saltiel and N. Papandréou, eds.: Téchni, trianda hronia, 1952–1982 [Téchni, thirty years] (Thessaloniki, 1985)
M. Kyrtsani: Parastassis operas sti Thessaloniki [Opera performances in Thessaloniki] (diss., Aristotle U. of Thessaloniki, 1990)
D. Diamandopoulou: I moussiki ke i moussiki zoi tis Thessalonikis méhri to 1924, symphona me ton topiko imerissio ke periodhiko typo [Music and musical life in Thessaloniki until 1924, according to the local daily and periodical press] (diss., Aristotle U. of Thessaloniki, 1991)
S.I. Kopsachilis: Moussiki Istoria tis Thessalonikis (Thessaloniki, 1994)
K. Tomanas: I kallitechniki kinissi stin Thessaloniki, 1885–1944 [The artistic life in Thessaloniki] (Thessaloniki, 1996)
To Lexico tis Ellinikis Moussikis [Dictionary of Greek music] (Athens, 1998–)
GEORGE LEOTSAKOS