Teatro La Fenice ("the phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres (to fire and legal problems respectively). (Since opening and being named La Fenice, it has twice burned and been rebuilt.) The phoenix from the Aberdeen Bestiary. ... The foyer of Charles Garniers Opéra, Paris, opened 1875 Opera is an art form consisting of a dramatic stage performance set to music. ... Location within Italy Venice (Italian: Venezia), the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice, 45°26′ N 12°19′ E, population 271,663 (census estimate 2004-01-01). ...

History

The interior of La Fenice in 1837.

In 1774, the San Benedetto Theatre, which had been Venice's leading opera house for more than forty years, burned to the ground. No sooner had it been rebuilt than a legal dispute broke out between the company managing it and the owners, the Venier family. The issue was decided in favor of the Veniers. As a result, the theatre company decided to build a new opera house of its own on the Campo San Fantin. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2178x1470, 987 KB)The interior of La Fenice in Venice in 1837. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2178x1470, 987 KB)The interior of La Fenice in Venice in 1837. ...

The construction began in June 1790, and by May 1792 the theatre was completed. It was named "La Fenice", in reference to the company's survival, first of the fire, then of the loss of its former quarters. La Fenice was inaugurated on May 16, 1792 with an opera by Giovanni Paisiello entitled I Giochi di Agrigento. May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ... 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Paisiello at the clavichord, by Elizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 1791. ...

From the beginning of the 19th century, La Fenice acquired a European reputation. Rossini mounted two major productions in the theatre and Bellini had two operas premiered there. Donizetti, fresh from his triumphs in Milan and Naples, returned to Venice in 1836, after an absence of seventeen years. Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (February 29, 1792 — November 13, 1868) was an Italian musical composer who wrote more than 30 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. ... Vincenzo Bellini Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (November 3, 1801 – September 23, 1835) was an Italian opera composer. ... Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797–8 April 1848) was a famous Italian opera composer. ... La Scala The Teatro alla Scala (or La Scala for short), in Milan, Italy, is one of the worlds most famous opera houses. ... The San Carlo is a famous opera house in Naples, Italy. ...

In December 1836, disaster struck again when the theatre was destroyed by fire. However, it was quickly rebuilt; La Fenice once again rose from its ashes to open its doors on the evening of December 26, 1837.

Giuseppe Verdi's association with La Fenice began in 1844, with a performance of Ernani during the Carnival season. Over the next thirteen years, the premieres of Attila, Rigoletto, La Traviata and Simon Boccanegra took place there. Giuseppe Verdi, by Giovanni Boldini, 1886 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome) Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (October 10, 1813 – January 27, 1901) was one of the great composers of Italian opera. ... Ernani is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. ... Swabian-Alemannic carnival clowns in Wolfach, Germany A carnival parade is a public celebration, combining some elements of a circus and public street party, generally during the Carnival Season. ... Rigoletto is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi. ... La traviata, an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, takes as its basis the novel La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, published in 1848. ... Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez. ...

During the First World War, La Fenice was closed, but reopened to again become the scene of much activity, attracting many of the world's greatest singers and conductors. In 1930, the Venice Biennale initiated the First International Festival of Contemporary Music, which brought such composers as Stravinsky and Britten, and more recently Berio, Nono and Bussotti, to write for La Fenice. World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... View of Pump Room, a work by the Hungarian artist Balázs Kicsiny at the Venice Biennale in 2005. ... Igor Fyodorovitch Stravinsky (Russian: ) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian-American composer of modern classical music. ... Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (November 22, 1913 – December 4, 1976) was a British composer, conductor and pianist. ... Luciano Berio (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian composer. ... Luigi Nono (29 January 1924 - 8 May 1990) was an Italian composer of contemporary music. ... Sylvano Bussotti (born 1931) is an Italian composer of contemporary music. ...

On 29 January 1996, it was completely destroyed by fire. Arson was immediately suspected. In March 2001, a court in Venice found two electricians guilty of setting the fire. Enrico Carella and his cousin, Massimiliano Marchetti, appeared to have set the building ablaze because their company was facing heavy fines over delays in repair work. Carella, the company's owner, was sent to prison for seven years, while Marchetti received a six-year sentence. January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

After various delays, reconstruction began in earnest in 2001. In 650 days, a team of two hundred plasterers, artists, woodworkers, and other craftsman succeeded in recreating the ambience of the old theatre at a cost of some € 90 million.

La Fenice was rebuilt in 19th-century style on the basis of a design by architect Aldo Rossi. It reopened on 14 December 2003 with an inaugural concert of Beethoven, Wagner, and Stravinsky. The first opera production was La Traviata in November, 2004. Critical response to the rebuilt La Fenice was mixed. The music critic of the rightwing paper Il Tempo, Enrico Cavalotti, was satisfied. He found the colours a bit bright but the sound good and compact. For his colleague Dino Villatico of the leftwing La Repubblica, however, the acoustics of the new hall lacked resonance and the colours were painfully bright. He found it "kitsch, a fake imitation of the past". He said that "the city should have had the nerve to build a completely new theater; Venice betrayed its innovative past by ignoring it". However, for many Venetians, a painful wound in the historical, much-admired cityscape has been healed. Aldo Rossi, (May 3, 1931- September 4, 1997 Milan, Italy) was an Italian architect. ... December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2003(MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770; died March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who predominantly lived in Vienna, Austria. ... Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 in Leipzig – February 13, 1883 in Venice) was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his groundbreaking symphonic-operas (or music dramas). His compositions are notable for their continuous contrapuntal texture, rich harmonies and orchestration, and elaborate... Igor Fyodorovitch Stravinsky (Russian: ) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian-American composer of modern classical music. ... La traviata, an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, takes as its basis the novel La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, published in 1848. ... Il Tempo is a thoroughbred racehorse, and is probably New Zealands greatest stayer. ... La Repubblica is one of the best-known and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. ...

External links

• La Fenice website
• Two jailed for La Fenice arson (BBC News)
• La Fenice rises glittering from the ashes (from Reuters)
• Ristorante La Fenice Italian resturant in Toronto,Canada, named after the opera house.