TEATRO LA FENICE

Description

Essentials about Teatro La Fenice in brief

For opera and concert lovers, a visit to the Teatro La Fenice (Phoenix Theater) is a must on a trip to Venice. The full name “Gran Teatro la Fenice di Venezia” is the largest and most famous opera house in Venice and, along with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, probably the most famous opera house in Italy. In addition, La Fenice is also undisputedly one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world.

The history of Teatro La Fenice

In 1774, Venice’s most important opera house, the Teatro San Benedetto, had fallen victim to a fire. After reconstruction, a legal dispute arose in 1786 between the operators, a consortium of lodge owners, and the patrician Venier family, who owned the property. The theater was renamed Teatro Venier and the old operators decided to build their own house. Construction began in 1790 under the direction of architect Gian Antonio Selva. The opera house was opened on May 16, 1792 and named “La Fenice” in allusion to the fire disaster.

At the same time, the name is a reference to the Masonic background, because it was built by a theater society, most of whose members belonged to Masonic lodges. La Fenice – the sunbird, stands here as a symbol for rebirth and resurrection and offers a reference to the light symbolism of the Enlightenment period. The stage quickly became one of the most important in Italy and Europe and saw numerous premieres. Masonic content is also attested in numerous libretti in the operas written for La Fenice for the years from 1792 to 1814.

In 1836 the house was severely damaged by fire. This damage was repaired within a year; the reputation of the house remained unchanged. Giuseppe Verdi, in particular, often chose this stage for the premieres of his works (Ernani, Attila, Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, La traviata). After the unification of Italy in 1870, Milan, Rome and Naples were increasingly promoted as opera centers, but the importance of La Fenice never suffered significantly. In 1883, two months after Richard Wagner’s death (in Venice), the Italian premiere of his four-part work Der Ring des Nibelungen took place. In 1937, the theater was thoroughly renovated by the Venetian city architect Eugenio Miozzi.

After World War II, the house experienced a renewed boom as part of the Venice Music Biennale. In this context, the Festival of Contemporary Music was organized, which again gave rise to numerous world premieres.

During renovation works, on January 29, 1996, the building was set on fire by the electrical engineer Enrico Carella and his cousin, because Carella wanted to avoid a penalty of 7,500 euros for late work. The house burned to the ground. The perpetrators originally intended to start only a limited fire to delay construction, but the surrounding canals were drained at the time for cleaning work, so firefighters had trouble getting water to extinguish the fire. Carella was sentenced to seven years in prison, but was paroled from prison after only 16 months. His cousin was sentenced to six years but was released early under an amnesty.

Because there was controversy over the nature of the rebuilding, it took several years before it was begun. Finally, the contribution of architect Aldo Rossi, which won the 1997 competition, was implemented. Rossi stuck to a reconstruction that was as faithful as possible to the original and was made more precise on the basis of old photos and film documents, supplemented by necessary functional extensions and modernization of the technology. On December 14, 2003, La Fenice was reopened as a concert hall with an orchestra concert. Opera operations resumed in November 2004.