Spyridon Xyndas

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Spyridon Xyndas
Spyridon Xyndas

Spyridon Xyndas or Spiridione Xinda (Σπυρίδων Ξύνδας) (1812-1896) was a Greek composer and guitarist, whose last name has also been transliterated as "Xinta", "Xinda", "Xindas", and "Xyntas". He was born in Corfu and already in 1823 he was a student of Nikolaos Halikiopoulos Mantzaros in music theory. After the completion of his studies in Corfu, he continued them in Naples and Milan. In 1840 he and Antonios Liveralis (Antonio Liberali, one more student of Mantzaros)were the only professional musicians to participate in the founding of the Philharmonic Society of Corfu, an institute in which Xyndas was to teach for several years. In 1840s Xyndas began to compose concert arias and songs in demotic Greek, a contribution that eventually resulted to the creation of the opera O ypopsifios [The Parliamentary Candidate] (1867), which was the first full-scale opera based on a libretto in greek written by Ioannis Rinopulos (with contributions by Nikolaos Makris and Xyndas himself). Its seemingly comic plot is a severe criticism regarding the living conditions of the Ionian Islands' rural society and against the morality of the indegenous politicians, both during the British Protection period (1815-1864) and after it. Xyndas also composed other operatic works, the most notable of which was Anna Winter, based on the Dumas's The Three Musketeers, which is the earliest use of a Dumas's work in the modern greek theatre. The 1888 success of his 'Candidate' in Athens, which became the occasion for the creation of the first melodramatic troupe comprising from Greeks, led Xyndas and his family in the capital of Greece, where he died poor in 1896.

[edit] Operas

  • Anna Winter (1855) aka I tris somatofylakes
  • Il Conte Giuliano (1857)
  • O ypopsifios [The parliamentary candidate](1867)
  • O neogambros (1877)
  • I due pretendenti (1878)
  • Galatea (1895, incomplete)

[edit] References