Renato Mordo Exhibition at the Banknote Museum

The Banknote Museum of Ionian Bank on the island of Corfu is hosting an exhibition for Renato Mordo on the 2nd floor of its iconic building.

The exhibition “Renato Mordo” presents the life and work of Renato Mordo, the charismatic man of the theatre and co-founder of the Greek National Opera. Through photographic material, personal belongings and manuscripts of Mordo himself, the exhibition reveals the impact of the German occupation on Athens during World War II.

A few words about Renato Mordo

Renato Mordo was a theatre and opera director, author and drama professor. His parents were of Jewish descent and his father was a Greek merchant from Corfu.

In 1932 Mordo left Germany, due to the growing rise of Nazism. In 1939 he moved to Athens. As the co-founder of the Greek National Opera, he promoted the young opera singer Maria Callas. He also co-wrote the play Chaidari, in which he describes his traumatic experience in the German concentration camp in Chaidari, Athens.

After the war, he worked at theatres in Turkey, Austria and Israel. From 1952 to 1955 he was the opera director at the State Theatre of Mainz, the capital of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Contributors

• Curator: Torsten Israel
• Designers: Uwe Bader, Marita Hoffman
• Translations (German, Greek): Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Modern Greek Department) and Ionian University, Corfu (Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting)