Teatro La Fenice

Teatro La Fenice Review

The magnificent Teatro La Fenice, located between Piazza San Marco and Campo San Stefano, is one of Italy's oldest opera houses and a shrine for opera lovers. It has witnessed many memorable operatic premieres, including, in 1853, the dismal first-night flop of Verdi's La Traviata. It has also witnessed its share of disasters. The most recent was a horrific fire that burned it to the ground, deliberately set in January 1996, followed by endless delays in a complicated reconstruction. In keeping with its name (which translates as The Phoenix, coined when it was built over the ashes of its predecessor in 1792), La Fenice rose again, luxuriously restored and reopened to great fanfare in 2004, once again hosting seasons of symphony, opera, and dance.