Teatro La Fenice
Venice's historic opera house, rebuilt after fire in 2003, with daily visits and a year-round season.
Teatro La Fenice opened in 1792 to a design by Giannantonio Selva, built for a company of box-holders who had lost their previous theatre. Its name, meaning the phoenix, proved apt: the building burned down in 1836 and again in 1996, and was rebuilt each time. The nineteenth-century reconstruction by the Meduna brothers established the gilded horseshoe auditorium that visitors see today, with five tiers of boxes rising above the stalls.
The theatre gave the premieres of several Verdi operas, among them Rigoletto, La traviata and Ernani, and later works by Stravinsky, Britten and Nono. After the 1996 arson attack it was rebuilt following the principle of restoring it as it was and where it was, reopening in 2003. Alongside opera, ballet and symphonic seasons, La Fenice admits daytime visitors with an audio guide when the stage is free.
Highlights
- Gilded horseshoe auditorium with five tiers of boxes
- Premiere house of Verdi's Rigoletto and La traviata
- Rebuilt after the 1996 fire and reopened in 2003
- Audio-guided daytime visits between rehearsals
