La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice (pronounced [la feˈniːtʃe], "The Phoenix") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre"[1] and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice became the site of many famous operatic premieres at which the works of several of the four major bel canto era composers—Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi—were performed.
Address
Venice
Italy
City of Venice
1126
1792
- 1837
- 2003
- Gianantonio Selva
- Tommaso Meduna and Giovanni Battista Meduna
- Aldo Rossi
Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of three theatres to fire, the first in 1774 after the city's leading house was destroyed and rebuilt but not opened until 1792; the second fire came in 1836, but rebuilding was completed within a year. The third fire was the result of arson, and destroyed the house in 1996 leaving only the exterior walls; it was rebuilt and re-opened in November 2004. In order to celebrate this event, the tradition of the Venice New Year's Concert started.
Artistic notes[edit]
Façade[edit]
Built in 1792 to a plan by the architect Giannantonio Selva, the façade of the building is the only element to have completely survived the two fires that almost entirely destroyed the opera house in 1836 and 1996. Unlike the other theaters in the city, whose entrances are in secluded places like alleys and small squares, La Fenice is the only historic Venetian theatre facing onto an open space, Campo San Fantin. It is also the only one to feature a colonnade in neo-classical style in its façade. This bears the theatre's insignia in the centre portraying the phoenix that rises from the flames, carved in 1837 to design by Giambattista Meduna. The façade features two statues in niches representing the muses of tragedy and dance: Melpomene and Terpsichore. Above them are the masks of Comedy and Tragedy, thought to be by Domenico Fadiga. The first sculptures that adorned the entrance to the opera house, in terracotta and carved in Baroque style, were attributed to either Giuseppe Bernardi or his nephew Giovanni Ferrari, both of whom taught Canova. They were replaced in 1875 as they were in an advanced state of decay and were in any case thought incompatible, if restored, with the classical style of the façade. The two new statues were made in Custoza stone by Augusto Benvenuti in a new style that better suited the building. All trace of the original sculptures was lost after the theatre management sold them to Benvenuti in 1876. Two commemorative stelae were placed in the entrance vestibule after the 1837 reconstruction. The one on the right, sculpted in that year by Antonio Giaccarelli to an original design by Giambattista Meduna, is attributed to the architect Giannantonio Selva. The one on the left, in honour of the playwright Carlo Goldoni, is by Luigi Zandomeneghi and was moved from the atrium where it had been dedicated on 26 December 1830. The new sign of the opera house, in gold and blue, again to a design By Meduna, was also placed above the entrance in 1837.
New rooms[edit]
"As it was, where it was", the motto for reconstruction of La Fenice, called for the opera house to be rebuilt as it was before the 1996 fire. This principle, however, was seen applying only to the rooms of particular historic and artistic importance. The opportunity was therefore taken to redesign the parts of the building that did not come into this category, resulting in the creation of three new rooms.
In fiction[edit]
Donna Leon's debut novel, Death at La Fenice (1992), the first in her Commissario (Detective) Guido Brunetti detective series, centers on a mystery surrounding the sensational death by cyanide poisoning of a famous orchestra conductor, in the midst of a production of La traviata at La Fenice. In several scenes the opera house is described in meticulous detail, as it was at the time of writing, previous to the third fire.