La Fenice Theater
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The Teatro La Fenice ( Italian [ te'atro la feˈnitʃe ]), with its full name Gran Teatro La Fenice di Venezia , is the largest and most famous opera house in Venice . The Venice New Year's Concert has been held here since 2004 .
history
In 1774 the most important opera house in Venice, the Teatro San Benedetto , fell victim to a fire. After the reconstruction, a legal dispute broke out in 1786 between the owners, a consortium of lodge owners, and the Venier patrician family, who owned the property. The theater was renamed Teatro Venier and the old operators decided to build their own house. Construction began in April 1790 under the direction of the architect Gian Antonio Selva . The opera was opened on May 16, 1792 and named "La Fenice" ( Italian for phoenix ) in allusion to the fire disaster .
The name is also an indication of the Masonic background, because it was established by a theater society, the majority of which were members of Masonic lodges . La Fenice - Phoenix - the sun bird, 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 world premieres. In the operas written for La Fenice, there is evidence of Masonic content in numerous libretti for the years from 1792 to 1814. As usual in Italy, the carnival, Whitsun and autumn were played.
In 1836 the house was badly damaged by a fire. This damage could be repaired within a year; the reputation of the house remained unchanged. Giuseppe Verdi in particular often chose this stage for the world 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 ( tetralogy ) The Ring of the Nibelung took place. In 1937 the theater was completely renovated by the Venetian city architect Eugenio Miozzi .
After the Second World War , the house experienced a renewed boom as part of the Venice Music Biennale . The festival for contemporary music was held in this environment , which again gave rise to numerous world premieres ( Igor Stravinsky , Benjamin Britten , Sergei Prokofjew , Luciano Berio , Luigi Nono , Bruno Maderna , Sylvano Bussotti ).
During renovation work, the building was set on fire on January 29, 1996 by the electrical engineer Enrico Carella and his cousin Massimiliano Marchetti, because Carella wanted to avoid a penalty of 7,500 euros for late work. The house burned to the ground. The perpetrators originally only wanted to start a limited fire in order to delay construction, but at that time the surrounding canals were drained for cleaning work, so that the fire brigade had problems with the extinguishing water. Carella was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 1996, but went through all instances up to the Court of Cassation in Rome and after the verdict in the last instance in 2003 did not serve the prison term. He has since been on the run. In May 2007 he was extradited from Mexico to Italy. In June 2008, he was paroled by a court in Venice, although he had only served 16 months of his seven years. His cousin Marchetti, who had been sentenced to six years, was released in 2006 due to a general amnesty. Since there was controversy about the type of rebuilding, it took a few years before the new construction began.
Finally, the award by the architect Aldo Rossi in the 1997 competition was implemented. In doing so, Rossi adhered to a largely true-to-the-original reconstruction , made more precise on the basis of old photos and film documents , supplemented by necessary functional expansions and modernization of the technology. In this way “many of the characteristics of the original design from 1790, which had been lost over the centuries, could now be taken up again. The theater today shows itself in its historical guise, but it can be clearly seen in isolated, well-chosen places that the present in which it was built is reflected in the architecture of the theater. "
On December 14, 2003, the house was opened as a concert hall with a concert by the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice under the direction of Riccardo Muti . On November 12, 2004, after the completion of the most modern stage machinery in the world, opera operations could also be resumed. The program featured La traviata by Verdi, conducted by Lorin Maazel, in a new production by Robert Carsen that is set in the present. The legendary acoustics of the Fenice have been restored and even improved with modern technology. In February 2005 the musical director Marcello Viotti died unexpectedly .
The Gran Teatro La Fenice is played all year round by the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice with symphony concerts. The opera season (Stagione) begins in January (unlike most other Italian opera houses) and ends in December.
Artistic Director (selection)
- Mario Labroca
- Sylvano Bussotti (1975-1983)
- Italo Gomez
- John Fisher
- Francesco Siciliani
- Sergio Segalini
- Fortunato Ortombina (current)
Musical director (selection)
- Ettore Gracis
- Zoltán Peskó (1976–1978?)
- Eliahu Inbal (1984-1987)
- Isaac Karabtchevsky (1995-2001)
- Marcello Viotti (2002-2005)
- Eliahu Inbal (2007 to 2011)
- Diego Matheuz , since 2011
World premieres
See also
literature
- Beate Hannemann: Under the sign of the sun. History and repertoire of the La Fenice opera house from its foundation to the Congress of Vienna (1787–1814) (= Dialoghi. Vol. 2). Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1996, ISBN 3-631-30261-4 (At the same time: Hannover, Universität, Dissertation, 1995).
- John Berendt : The City of Falling Angels. 2nd Edition. Heyne, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-453-81172-0 .
Web links
- Teatro La Fenice (Italian, English)
- Luigi Monzo: In Search of the Lost Identity. In: Point and Paragraph… Views on Architecture , Luigi Monzo website, January 17, 2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Karlhorst Klotz and Jürgen Reinhold: Harmonious Renaissance. sueddeutsche.de , May 17, 2010, accessed on February 17, 2013 .
- ^ Venice opera house restoration halted. BBC News , March 23, 2001, accessed February 17, 2013 .
- ^ La Fenice arson ruling stands. BBC News , July 14, 2003, accessed February 16, 2013 .
- ↑ "Fenice" -Brandstifter after 16 months on the loose, Die Presse , 26. August 2008
- ^ La Fenice's troubled history. BBC News , March 30, 2001, accessed February 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Phoenix on the runway. derStandard.at , March 13, 2002, accessed on February 16, 2013 .
- ↑ Luigi Monzo: In Search of the Lost Identity. In: point and paragraph ... views on architecture. Website of Luigi Monzo, 17th January 2012.
- ↑ In pictures: La Fenice to reopen. BBC News , December 13, 2003, accessed February 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Reopening with pomp and glory. derStandard.at , December 14, 2003, accessed on February 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Violetta in a fur coat and jeans. derStandard.at , November 14, 2004, accessed on February 16, 2013 .
Coordinates: 45 ° 26 ′ 0.4 ″ N , 12 ° 19 ′ 59.4 ″ E