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La Fenice Theatre PDF Print E-mail
Il Tealtro La Fenice di Venezia La Fenice theatre is the main lyric theatre in Venice. It was destroyed by fire several times and then rebuilt. It is the headquarters of an important opera season and of the International Festival of Contemporary Music.
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History

Venice’s La Fenice Theatre was designed in 1790 by Gian Antonio Selva for a company of box-holders of Venice’s aristocracy: the venetian theatre was built rapidly, despite the many controversies about its location and its rationalist and neo-classical structure.

Despite its rapid construction, the opposition of the groups against the new theatre continued; they mainly criticized the increasingly expenses that greatly overcame the initial estimation of 400.000 ducats.

The competition for the project was called on 1st November 1789 and work started in April 1790 under the supervision of Gian Antonio Selva. Within two years from the presentation of the project, Venice’s La Fenice Theatre was completed and inaugurated on 16 May 1792, staging I Giochi di Agrigento by Giovanni Paisiello.

On 13th December 1836, the theatre was destroyed by a fire, but was immediately rebuilt, according to the original model, by the architects Tommaso Meduna and Giambattista Meduna.

Stemma del Teatro La FeniceThroughout the 19th century, it was the home of several lyric opera opening nights by important Italian authors such as Gioachino Rossini (Tancredi in 1813 and Semiramide in 1823), Vincenzo Bellini (I Capuleti e i Montecchi in 1830 and Beatrice di Tenda in 1833) and Giuseppe Verdi (Ernani in 1843, Attila in 1846, Rigoletto in 1851, La traviata in 1853 and Simon Boccanegra in 1857).
La Traviata, at its first night, was hissed by La Fenice’s audience.

In 1937, the theatre was restored according to Eugenio Miozzi’s project.

On 29th January 1996, the theatre was completely and again destroyed by arson: the fire was started by an electrician, Enrico Carella who wanted to avoid paying the contractual penalty due to his delay in carrying out his work.

The Country’s most important institutions committed themselves at once for its reconstruction, The theatre was rebuilt, according to the style of the previous one, in about eight years. On 14th December 2003, the new theatre was inaugurated with a concert conducted by Riccardo Muti, who opened the celebrations of the Opening Week.

During the works the plays of the Venetian lyric body took place at the Palafenice, a temporary structure properly created in the Tronchetto area and at the Malibran Theatre.

For a few years, the New Year’s Eve Concert has taken place here in the same time and, we can say, in competition with the Musikverein Theatre of Vienna.

Source: Wikipedia