La Fenice
Teatro La Fenice (pronounced [teˈaːtro la feˈniːtʃe]; "The Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" 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 several works by the four major bel canto era composers—Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi—were performed.
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.
Through the years, the greatest conductors in the world have performed at La Fenice, including Giuseppe Martucci, Arturo Toscanini, Richard Strauss, Pietro Mascagni, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, Fritz Reiner, Tullio Serafin, John Barbirolli, Guido Cantelli, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Claudio Abbado, and Riccardo Muti.
Similar Artists