Teatro La Fenice

About this place

One night in January 1996, fire took Teatro La Fenice down to its outer walls. The cause turned out to be two electricians who set it alight rather than face the penalties piling up over their late work. The irony is doubled by the name — La Fenice means the phoenix — and by the fact that the theatre, open since 1792, had already burned once, in 1836. It was rebuilt to the principle of com'era, dov'era, as it was and where it was, and reopened in December 2003 as a near-exact copy of itself: the same gold, the same blue, the same five stacked tiers of boxes. The daytime visit is shorter than most people expect; three quarters of an hour usually covers it. You come through the gilded foyer and the Sale Apollinee into the auditorium itself, then out into the royal box, with an audio guide in ten languages included in the price. The hall is smaller than photographs suggest, which works in its favour — it is intimate enough that the back row still feels close to the stage. A permanent exhibition devoted to Maria Callas and her Venice years is part of the route. Backstage and the scenery workshops are not. La Fenice is more than an exercise in interior decoration. Verdi's Rigoletto had its first night here in 1851, and La Traviata followed in 1853 in an opening so unsuccessful the audience laughed at it, before going on to become one of the most performed operas anywhere. Rossini and Bellini passed through before him. If you have one Venetian evening to spend on something other than walking, a performance ticket shows you the building as it actually is: lit, full, working. The theatre sits on Campo San Fantin, minutes on foot from Piazza San Marco but in a far quieter corner, down lanes it is easy to get mildly lost in — no bad thing. Full admission is twelve euros with the audio guide, and the doors are normally open every day from 9:30 to 18:00, though rehearsals and performances shorten or cancel those hours on particular days, so checking the official site the morning of your visit is not fussiness. Note too that La Fenice is not covered by the civic museums pass that gets you into the Doge's Palace and the Correr — this is an entirely separate ticket. And as always in Venice, the vaporetto fares and the peak-day visitor access fee can add up to more than the admission itself, while the walk here crosses stepped bridges that are hard going with a pushchair or a wheelchair.