Kardamis, Kostas. Birth of Greek Opera. "San Giacomo and Greek ottocento" XI Convegno Annuale di Società Italiana di Musicologia Lecce, 22–24 October 2004. Archive from 16 October 2015 (accessed 4 December 2017). Quotes: "Originally it functioned as the loggia of the island’s Venetian nobility, but in 1720 it was converted into a theatre, which, despite being one more theatre in the provinces of Serenissima, became the first modern theatre on Greek soil." - "These activities are of particular importance for the music history of modern Greece, since in an era when there was not such a thing as Greek State in Greek Mainland (let alone organized musical activities)." - "San Giacomo gradually acted as a pole that could hold in Corfu adequate and often well-qualified players and teachers from Italy. This resulted to the increasing interest towards music, a fact that had both cultural and social roots, and to the gradual emergence of a series of indigenous players, becoming this way the first professional musicians of modern Greece." - "Our knowledge for the activities of San Giacomo was until recently very limited, mainly due to the loss of its valuable archive during a German bombing in 1943." - "Spiridon Xindas is widely known as the composer of the opera O ypopsifios (1867), the first opera on Greek libretto." - "In 1867 the opera O Ypopsifios [The Parliamentary Candidate] was performed in San Giacomo by local amateurs. This was the first opera to use a full-scale libretto in Greek and which shows the creative assimilation of Italian and Greek musical perspectives in the Ionians."
