July 5, 2012: Siros (Day 2)

July 5, 2012: Even in the morning, the temperature was hot and the humidity high. Thank goodness there was a great pool at the hotel so we could cool down when it became unbearable.

Pool at Faros Hotel

Faros Hotel

After breakfast, we had our first rehearsal at the Faros Hotel. Since our first concert was Beethoven's 9th, we practiced Beethoven exclusively. Although I was a bit unsure of my part at first, I eventually felt comfortable with the baritone part. The good news is that the sound of the choir was quite full and on key (I've always had concerns about amateur choirs going flat but this choir sounded right on pitch to me). The quality of the voices was quite good, too, although we definitely needed more male voices to balance out the great number of sopranos and altos in the group.


In the afternoon, we walked about 1/4 mile to the nearest village on the beach to find a restaurant. The beach was quite scenic and full of activity -- people sunning themselves or playing in the water.

beach on Siros

The town had a few restaurants and several of us from the choir ate together. I had stuffed pepper and stuffed tomato, and Ruth had pasticcio, both very well done. 

Later in the afternoon, we went by bus to downtown Hermoupolis (aka Ermoupoli) to meet with Peter Tiboris, the conductor of the Beethoven concert, and also the general and artistic director of the Aegean Festival. He told us a bit about the festival, the Cyclades, the buildings (including the Apollo Theater), and Hermoupolis. 

The Apollo Theater was built of marble and limestone in 1864, originally to be an opera house, but it was later converted to a theater. When the Romans took over power in Greece, they were going to tear it down, but the people of Siros wouldn't allow this and circled the theater to defend it from being torn down. The Romans relented, and for many years the Apollo Theater was in disrepair. It was renovated in 2000 and has been used as a theater house ever since.

As for the island of Siros, it is the largest of the Cyclades Islands, a major group of islands southeast of the Greek peninsula. Altogether, there are 400 islands in the Cyclades, but only 40 of these are inhabited. As mentioned above, Siros was taken over by the Romans from 1600 - 1800 as the Romans moved east to Turkey. 

We also toured the city and the Apollo Theater where one of the concerts was to take place:

Miaoulis Square, site of our second (outdoor) concert

Apollo Theater ceiling

Apollo Theater

Apollo Theater

After our tour, we walked to one of the many restaurants downtown where we had mousaka for dinner. Mousaka is a famous Greek meal made of layers of potatoes, eggplant, ground beef, and more potatoes on the bottom. The spices used make the taste quite fragrant.

one of the many outdoor restaurants in Siros

After dinner, we returned to our hotel and relaxed, ready to turn in and start out the next day rehearsing Beethoven again.