Qualla: Apollon Theater, Syros

Apollon Theater, Syros: Introduction

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NNeilAlieNN, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the evening of 20 April 1864, the curtain rose in Ermoupoli's new Municipal Theatre on a production of Verdi's Rigoletto — the opera that had premiered at La Fenice in Venice thirteen years earlier. The audience that filled the Apollon's velvet seats that night had waited a long time for this moment. Theatrical performances in Ermoupoli had been held since 1828, in warehouses and wooden cafes pressed into service as makeshift stages. Now the city had something permanent: a proper opera house, built in marble and limestone, its ceiling decorated with portraits of poets and composers, its design drawn from the great Italian theatres of the age. It was the first purpose-built opera house in Greece, on an island in the middle of the Aegean.

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Image: NNeilAlieNN | CC BY-SA 3.0

Apollon Theater, Syros: A City That Wanted a Theatre

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kevin Gabbert - User: (WT-shared) Kevin James at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Ermoupoli, the capital of the Cyclades, was the busiest port in Greece through much of the nineteenth century — a commercial city of shipowners, merchants, and craftspeople who had built substantial wealth and, with it, cultural ambition. The theatrical life of the city had been ...

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Image: Kevin Gabbert - User: (WT-shared) Kevin James at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Apollon Theater, Syros: A Miniature of La Scala

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zacharias Mitzelos, CC0. Sampò designed the Apollon in conscious dialogue with the great Italian opera houses. His sources included La Scala in Milan (whose original 1776 design he studied), the restored Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the Academic Theatre in Castelfranco, and the Teatro della Pergola in ...

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Image: Zacharias Mitzelos | CC0

Apollon Theater, Syros: Rigoletto to Kotopouli

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NNeilAlieNN, CC BY-SA 3.0. The opening night's Rigoletto was followed immediately by four more productions: La favorita, La traviata, and two comedies performed by the same Italian company. Within two years the theatre had passed to the Hellenic Drama Society, and the Apollon began to host Greek theatre al...

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Image: NNeilAlieNN | CC BY-SA 3.0

Apollon Theater, Syros: Restoration and Return

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zde, CC BY-SA 4.0. The road back was long. The municipality began thinking about renovation in 1959, but general repairs only started in 1970 — and caused further internal damage, the wooden vaults replaced with concrete balconies that altered the acoustic character of the space. Theatrical and fil...

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Image: Zde | CC BY-SA 4.0