Venice Gran Teatro La Fenice
The Teatro La Fenice was founded in 1792. In the nineteenth century, the theatre staged the world
premieres of numerous operas, including Rossini’s Tancredi, Sigismondo and Semiramide, Bellini’s I
Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues) and Beatrice di Tenda, Donizetti’s
Belisario (Belisarius), Pia de’ Tolomei, and Maria de Rudenz, and Verdi’s Ernani, Attila, Rigoletto, La
traviata and Simon Boccanegra.
On 29th January 1996 a devastating malicious fire destroys the theatre, temporarily closed for
maintenance work. The fire brigade fights the blaze for the entire night. The world over laments the
loss of one of the most beautiful theatres, with its extraordinary acoustics and protagonist, from
time immemorial, of the opera, musical and cultural life of Italy and Europe.
From the sorrow of the loss comes the desire to reconstruct the historic theatre inspired by the motto “the way it was, where it was”, drawing on the reconstruction of the church tower of St. Marks.