(Gk. Kerkyra).
Capital city of the island bearing the same name and of the Ionian Islands. The islands, under Venetian rule for 400 years (until 1797), were the only part of Greece to avoid Ottoman occupation. Corfu is now regarded as the cradle of Greek art music and represents the earliest and most prominent Greek operatic centre, as well as one of the most important in the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. The Teatro S Giacomo (now the Town Hall) was completed in 1691; the earliest opera performances date from 1733, and from 1771 regular performances stimulated a lively musical culture (see Greece, §III, 1). Folk, popular and church music constituted the background against which opera became virtually a cult among the Ionian population.
During the 19th century opera spread to the other Ionian islands. The earliest known performances on Zákinthos were in 1813; opera on Kefallinia began in 1838 with performances by visiting Italian companies, subsidized by the British authorities (see Evanghelatos). The second half of the 19th century saw the opening and closing of several small theatres on both islands; the two most important theatres, the Kefalos on Kefallinia (inaugurated 1858, cap. 500) and the Foscolo on Zákinthos (inaugurated 1875, cap. 750), were destroyed by the earthquakes of 1953. A modern theatre, also named Kefalos (cap. 500), was erected on Kefallinia in 1994.
The construction of a larger, modern theatre in Corfu began in 1893. The Dhimotikon Theatron (City Theatre), with 64 boxes in three tiers, was inaugurated with Lohengrin in 1902. After 1900, when the Elliniko Melodrama company from Athens came to life, companies, mainly Italian, alternated with Greek opera and operetta presentations. Another theatre, the Phoenix, had both winter (500 seats) and open-air summer (c1050 seats) premises; it was active between 1895 and 1945, with operetta companies appearing in the larger venue. Visits by Italian companies were almost completely suspended from 1923, when the Fascists bombarded the city and occupied the island. The City Theatre was heavily damaged by fire in 1943, when it seems that the theatre archives as well as Ionian composers’ manuscripts were destroyed. The building was demolished in 1952, to be replaced in 1980 by a much smaller theatre.
As important as opera for the propagation of secular music in the Ionian Islands were the philharmonic societies, essentially wind bands; the first of these appeared in Zákinthos in about 1817, and the famous Corfu Philharmonic Society was founded in 1840. Thanks to these societies, the Ionian Islands became a prime source of wind players in continental Greek bands and orchestras. Besides the Corfu Philharmonic, several other wind bands, including the Mantzaros (founded 1890) and the Capodistrias (founded 1980), still existed at the end of the 20th century. Another important feature of the Ionian musical landscape is male choruses, notably the Horodhia Kerkyras (Corfu Chorus), and mandolinatas specializing in kantadhes (Ionian popular partsongs). In 1894 the Odheion Kerkyras (Corfu Conservatory) was founded, while the Kefallinian composer Yerassimos Rombotis (1903–87) settled in Corfu, opened a music school and established a full symphony orchestra, both active from 1928 to 1934. In 2000 Corfu had a City SO and a (mixed) City Chorus. The Corfu Festival, inaugurated in 1981, was short-lived due to a lack of funds.
The 1990s saw the opening of several educational establishments in Corfu. The Music School, founded in 1991, is considered to be one of the best in Greece, while five new conservatories opened in 1996–7: the Ionian Conservatory, branches of the Athenian Philippos Nakas and Hellenic conservatories, the Communal Conservatory of Ano Korakiána, and the conservatory in Lefkimmi. The music department of the Ionian University was founded in 1992 by the composer Mihalis Adamis, who was succeeded in 1993 by Haris Xanthoudakis. It has established a network of contacts with foreign universities and promotes the publication of texts on the history of Greek art music. The department is also notable for its mixed chorus and the resident Trio Korypho (piano, violin, clarinet), both of which give frequent concerts in Corfu, Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and other Greek cities.
S.S. Papageorgios: Ta kata tin Philarmonikēn etairian Kerkyras apo tis systaseos mékhri tis sēmeron 1840–1890 [About the Corfu Philharmonic Society from its foundation to the present day] (Athens, 1890)
L.S. Vrokinis: Peri tis ikodomis tis en to kerkyraiko asti stoas (Loggia) ke tis is théatron metatropis aphtis 1663–1799 [On the edifice of the arcade (Loggia) in the city of Corfu and its transformation into a theatre] (Corfu, 1901); repr. in Kerkyraika khronika, xvii (1979), 263–81
S.A. Evanghelatos: Istoria tou theatrou en Kephallini, 1600–1900 [History of theatre in Kefallinia] (diss., U. of Athens, 1970)
A.-D. Dhebonos: Ē Philarmonikē Skholi Kephallonias, 1838–1940 [The Philharmonic School of Kefallinia] (Athens, 1988)
D.C. Kapadohos: To thèatro tis Kèrkyras sta mèsa tou xix aeonos [The Corfu theatre during the middle of the 19th century] (Athens, 1991)
Y. Hytiris: Ē opera sto thèatro tou Sangiakomo [Opera at the Teatro S Giacomo] (Corfu, 1994)
P. Mavromoustakos: ‘To italiko melodrama sto théatro San Giakomo tis Kérkyras (1733–1798)’ [Italian opera at the Teatro S Giacomo in Corfu], Parabasis (1995), 147–91
S.N. Tzerbinos: Philarmonika Zakynthou (1816–1960) (Zakynthos, 1996)
H. Xanthoudakis: ‘Mikro hroniko mias megalis paradhossis’ [A short chronicle of a great tradition], Imerologhio 1997, Kérkyra, Méres Moussikis (Corfu, 1997)
GEORGE LEOTSAKOS