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108-612: Teatro La Fenice ( pronounced [la feˈniːtʃe] , "The Phoenix ") is a historic opera house in Venice , Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre " and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice became the site of many famous operatic premieres at which the works of several of the four major bel canto era composers— Rossini , Bellini , Donizetti , and Verdi —were performed. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from

216-509: A Napoleon , have already been licked into that high-eddying Flame, and like moths consumed there. Still also have we to fear that incautious beards will get singed. For the rest, in what year of grace such Phoenix-cremation will be completed, you need not ask. The law of Perseverance is among the deepest in man: by nature he hates change; seldom will he quit his old house till it has actually fallen about his ears. Thus have I seen Solemnities linger as Ceremonies, sacred Symbols as idle Pageants, to

324-677: A halo , which emphasizes the bird's connection with the Sun . In the oldest images of phoenixes on record these nimbuses often have seven rays, like Helios (the Greek personification of the Sun). Pliny the Elder also describes the bird as having a crest of feathers on its head, and Ezekiel the Dramatist compared it to a rooster. The phoenix came to be associated with specific colors over time. Although

432-551: A 677-line 9th-century alliterative poem consisting of a paraphrase and abbreviation of Lactantius, followed by an explication of the Phoenix as an allegory for the resurrection of Christ . Þisses fugles gecynd   fela gelices bi þam gecornum   Cristes þegnum; beacnað in burgum   hu hi beorhtne gefean þurh fæder fultum   on þas frecnan tid healdaþ under heofonum   ond him heanna blæd in þam uplican   eðle gestrynaþ. This bird's nature  

540-589: A Living Society, and no longer fighting but working,—were it not perhaps prudent in Mankind to strike the bargain? Phoenixes are present and relatively common in European heraldry , which developed during the High Middle Ages . They most often appear as crests , and more rarely as charges . The heraldic phoenix is depicted as the head, chest and wings of an eagle rising from a fire; the entire creature

648-424: A blue-green pastel color. The current access to the stalls was designed by the engineer Miozzi in 1937 and decorated at the sides with two plaster caryatids. The house originally had two small entrances in the section now occupied by the first on the right of the current access, which until the second half of the 1930s was taken up by three boxes in the first tier. The orchestra pit now has a moveable platform. When

756-580: A borrowing of Latin phoenīx into Old English ( fenix ). This borrowing was later reinforced by French influence, which had also borrowed the Latin noun. In time, the word developed specialized use in the English language: For example, the term could refer to an "excellent person" (12th century), a variety of heraldic emblem (15th century), and the name of a constellation (17th century). The Latin word comes from Greek φοῖνιξ ( phoinix ). The Greek word

864-558: A court in Venice found two electricians, Enrico Carella and his cousin Massimiliano Marchetti, guilty of setting the fire. They appeared to have set the building ablaze because their company was facing heavy fines over delays in repair work in which they were engaged. Carella, the company's owner, disappeared after a final appeal was turned down. He had been sentenced to seven years in prison. Marchetti surrendered and served

972-486: A flaming aureole enriches its head. Its crest shines with the sun's own light and shatters the darkness with its calm brilliance. Its legs are of Tyrian purple ; swifter than those of the Zephyrs are its wings of flower-like blue dappled with rich gold. According to Pliny the Elder, a senator Manilius ( Marcus Manilius ?) had written that the phoenix appeared at the end of each Great Year , which he wrote of "in

1080-747: A huge leap forward when Aymonino allowed Rossi to design part of the Monte Amiata complex in the Gallaratese quarter of Milan. In 1971, he won the design competition for the extension of the San Cataldo Cemetery in Modena , which made him internationally famous. After suspension from teaching in Italy in those politically troubled times, he moved to ETH Zurich , occupying the chair in architectural design from 1971 to 1975. In 1973, he

1188-419: A judicial ruling in 1787, this association was expelled and forced to give up the opera house to the noble Venier family, the owners of the land on which it was built. The association immediately proposed building a larger and more sumptuous opera house than the one it had lost, which would become the symbol of their changing fortunes and their capacity for ′rebirth′. It was therefore to be called La Fenice , like

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1296-476: A production of La traviata at La Fenice. In several scenes the opera house is described in meticulous detail, as it was at the time of writing, previous to the third fire. Phoenix (mythology) The origin of the phoenix has been attributed to Ancient Egypt by Herodotus and later 19th-century scholars, but other scholars think the Egyptian texts may have been influenced by classical folklore. Over time,

1404-623: A richer design than before. This was his last work; his box was presented in January 1850 in the presence of his widow Maria Bonadei Borsato. The imperial loggia finally became the royal box in 1866 with the Veneto entrance into the Kingdom of Italy . The symbol of the Italian royal family can still be seen inside the box, reproduced on the side walls. There was a third Savoy shield on the crown of

1512-520: A series of dances in Ballet Royal de la Nuit , in the final piece as Apollo in a costume with a kilt of golden rays—and thus became known as the Sun King. La Fenice was built in tribute to the god Apollo. Unlike the house, which was completely destroyed by the enormous fire of 1996, about a fifth of these rooms survived. The surviving fragments can be easily recognized, as the precise intention of

1620-651: A six-year sentence. Ultimately, Carella was arrested in February 2007 at the Mexico-Belize border, was extradited to Italy, and was released on day parole after serving 16 months. After various delays, reconstruction began in earnest in 2001. In 650 days, a team of 200 plasterers, artists, woodworkers, and other craftsmen succeeded in recreating the ambiance of the old theatre, at a cost of some €90 million. As Gillian Price notes, "This time round, thanks to an enlightened project by late Italian architect Aldo Rossi and

1728-419: A stag's life is four time a crow's, and a raven's life makes three stags old, while the phoenix outlives nine ravens, but we, the rich-haired Nymphs daughters of Zeus the aegis -holder, outlive ten phoenixes. Classical discourse on the subject of the phoenix attributes a potential origin of the phoenix to Ancient Egypt . Herodotus , writing in the 5th century BC, provides the following account of

1836-468: A traditional horseshoe shaped auditorium, which had been the favoured style since it was introduced as early as 1642 in Venice. The house would face on one side a campo , or small plaza, and on the other a canal, with an entrance which gave direct access backstage and into the theatre. However, the process was not without controversy especially in regard to the aesthetics of the building. Some thirty responses were received and, as Romanelli accounts, Selva's

1944-414: A week, while the decorative components were constructed at the same time in various external workshops so that these would be ready for application once the structural work was complete. The same nineteenth-century materials were used: papier-mache, wood, and plaster for all ornamentation of the royal box and the entrance, the 22 Nereids that are part of the cornice of the so-called soffittone (ceiling), and

2052-403: Is accompanied by a second lateral stage onto which the stage equipment now moves sideways for construction and handling of the scenery. The place of honor in the house has a tormented existence, relating not only to the history of the opera house but also to the political and historic events of the city of Venice. The royal box was not part of Giannantonio Selva's original plan for La Fenice; at

2160-408: Is attributed to the architect Giannantonio Selva. The one on the left, in honour of the playwright Carlo Goldoni , is by Luigi Zandomeneghi and was moved from the atrium where it had been dedicated on 26 December 1830. The new sign of the opera house, in gold and blue, again to a design By Meduna, was also placed above the entrance in 1837. Escaping entirely unharmed from the first fire that destroyed

2268-555: Is first attested in the Mycenaean Greek po-ni-ke , which probably meant " griffin ", though it might have meant " palm tree ". That word is probably a borrowing from a West Semitic word for madder , a red dye made from Rubia tinctorum . The word Phoenician appears to be from the same root, meaning "those who work with red dyes". So phoenix may mean "the Phoenician bird" or "the purplish-red bird". Apart from

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2376-813: Is much like to the chosen   servants of Christ; pointeth out to men   how they bright joy through the Father's aid   in this perilous time may under heaven possess,   and exalted happiness in the celestial   country may gain. In the 14th century, Italian poet Dante Alighieri refers to the phoenix in Canto XXIV of the Divine Comedy 's Inferno : Così per li gran savi si confessa che la fenice more e poi rinasce, quando al cinquecentesimo anno appressa; erba né biado in sua vita non pasce, ma sol d'incenso lagrime e d'amomo, e nardo e mirra son l'ultime fasce. Even thus by

2484-808: Is never depicted. Scholars have observed analogues to the phoenix in a variety of cultures. These analogues include the Hindu garuda (गरुड) and bherunda (भेरुण्ड), the Russian firebird (жар-птица), the Persian simorgh (سیمرغ), the Georgian paskunji (ფასკუნჯი), the Arabian anqa (عنقاء), the Turkish Konrul , also called Zümrüdü Anka ("emerald anqa"), the Tibetan Me byi karmo ,

2592-572: Is spiritual, the second is by fire, the third is by water. Just as the phoenix appears as a witness concerning the angels , so the case of the water hydri in Egypt, which has been a witness to those going down into the baptism of a true man. The two bulls in Egypt posses a mystery, the Sun and the Moon, being a witness to Sabaoth : namely, that over them Sophia received the universe; from the day that she made

2700-620: Is that it is as large as an eagle, and has a gleam of gold round its neck and all the rest of it is purple, but the tail blue picked out with rosecoloured feathers and the throat picked out with tufts, and a feathered crest adorning its head. According to Claudian 's poem "The Phoenix", arcanum radiant oculi iubar. igneus ora cingit honos. rutilo cognatum vertice sidus attollit cristatus apex tenebrasque serena luce secat. Tyrio pinguntur crura veneno. antevolant Zephyros pinnae, quas caerulus ambit flore color sparsoque super ditescit in auro. A mysterious fire flashes from its eye, and

2808-413: Is therefore the area in which the largest number of original elements of the building survive: part of the decoration and most of the columns, the floor and the access stairs to the boxes. The fire of 1996 completely destroyed the five tiers of boxes, the stage and the ceiling, leaving only the perimeter walls on the original house. Reconstruction was based on the architect Aldo Rossi's design, keeping to

2916-499: The La Repubblica , the acoustics of the new hall lacked resonance, and the colours were painfully bright. He found it " kitsch , a fake imitation of the past". He said that "the city should have had the nerve to build a completely new theater; Venice betrayed its innovative past by ignoring it". Built in 1792 to a plan by the architect Giannantonio Selva, the façade of the building is the only element to have completely survived

3024-739: The American Academy of Arts and Letters and the following year he received their special cultural award in architecture and design. He died in Milan on 4 September 1997, following a car accident. Posthumously he received the Torre Guinigi prize for his contribution to urban studies and the Seaside Prize of the Seaside Institute, Florida, where he had built a detached family home in 1995. On appeal, his proposals won

3132-465: The Bennu , a solar bird similar in some respects to the Greek phoenix. However, the Egyptian sources regarding the bennu are often problematic and open to a variety of interpretations. Some of these sources may have actually been influenced by Greek notions of the phoenix, rather than the other way around. The phoenix is sometimes pictured in ancient and medieval literature and medieval art as endowed with

3240-637: The Chinese Fenghuang (鳳凰) and Zhuque (朱雀). These perceived analogues are sometimes included as part of the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature phoenix motif (B32). There are many works of modern literature make reference to the phoenix. Examples include: Aldo Rossi Aldo Rossi (3 May 1931 – 4 September 1997) was an Italian architect and designer who achieved international recognition in four distinct areas: architectural theory, drawing and design and also product design. He

3348-572: The Linear B mention above from Mycenaean Greece , the earliest clear mention of the phoenix in ancient Greek literature occurs in a fragment of the Precepts of Chiron , attributed to 8th-century BC Greek poet Hesiod . In the fragment, the wise centaur Chiron tells a young hero Achilles the following, describing the phoenix's lifetime as 972 times the length of a long-lived human's: A chattering crow lives now nine generations of aged men, but

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3456-766: The Parc de la Villette in Paris, the other for the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, which was never brought to fruition. In 1989, he continued product design work for Unifor (now part of Molteni Furniture ) and Alessi . His espresso maker La Cupola , designed for Alessi came out in 1988. In 1990, he was awarded the Pritzker Prize . The city of Fukuoka in Japan honoured him for his work on

3564-480: The Teatro San Benedetto , which had been Venice's leading opera house for more than forty years, burned to the ground. By 1789, with interest from a number of wealthy opera lovers who wanted a spectacular new house, "a carefully defined competition" was organised to find a suitable architect. It was won by Gianantonio Selva who proposed a neoclassical style building with 170 identical boxes in tiers in

3672-656: The 1999 competition for the restoration of the Teatro La Fenice , Venice and it reopened in 2004. In 1999, the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Bologna , based in Cesena , was named after him. His earliest works of the 1960s were mostly theoretical and displayed a simultaneous influence of 1920s Italian modernism ( see Giuseppe Terragni ), classicist influences of Viennese architect Adolf Loos , and

3780-405: The 19th-century novel Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle , Diogenes Teufelsdröckh uses the phoenix as a metaphor for the cyclical pattern of history, remarking upon the "burning of a World-Phoenix" and the " Palingenesia , or Newbirth of Society " from its ashes: When the Phoenix is fanning her funeral pyre, will there not be sparks flying! Alas, some millions of men, and among them such as

3888-454: The City ( L'architettura della città , 1966) and A Scientific Autobiography ( Autobiografia scientifica , 1981). The largest of Rossi's projects in terms of scale was the San Cataldo Cemetery, in Modena , Italy, which began in 1971, but is yet to be completed. Rossi referred to it as a "city of the dead". The distinctive independence of his buildings is reflected in the micro-architectures of

3996-522: The First International Festival of Contemporary Music, which brought such composers as Stravinsky and Britten , and more recently Berio , Nono , and Bussotti , to write for La Fenice. On 29 January 1996, La Fenice was completely destroyed by fire. Only its acoustics were preserved, since Lamberto Tronchin , an Italian acoustician, had measured the acoustics two months earlier. Arson was immediately suspected. In March 2001,

4104-461: The Sala Grande has been faithfully reconstructed to the original model. The floor, which is above the foyer, collapsed after the fire and only the corners were saved. The current floor has been faithfully rebuilt to the original model and its characteristic floral patterns reproduced, requiring the use of various types of wood: maple, olive, and cherry. The color of the walls is also the same as

4212-428: The Sun and Moon, she put a seal upon her heaven, unto eternity. And the worm that has been born out of the phoenix is a human being as well. It is written concerning it, "the just man will blossom like a phoenix". And the phoenix first appears in a living state, and dies, and rises again, being a sign of what has become apparent at the consummation of the age. The anonymous 10th century Old English Exeter Book contains

4320-780: The Veniers. At the beginning of the 19th century, La Fenice acquired a European reputation. Rossini mounted two major productions there: Tancredi in 1813 and Semiramide in 1823. Two of Bellini's operas were given their premieres there: I Capuleti e i Montecchi in March 1830 and Beatrice di Tenda in March 1833. Donizetti, fresh from his triumphs at La Scala in Milan and at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, returned to Venice in 1836 with his Belisario , after an absence of seventeen years. In December 1836, disaster struck again when

4428-529: The architect Giambattista Meduna and his engineer brother Tommaso to carry out the work, while Tranquillo Orsi was responsible for the decorations. The work began in February 1837 and performances were temporarily staged in the Teatro Apollo (previously the San Luca, now Goldoni). Everything was completed in record time. By the evening of 26 December of the same year, the new opera house, reborn in

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4536-478: The ashes" despite losing the use of three theatres to fire, the first in 1774 after the city's leading house was destroyed and rebuilt but not opened until 1792; the second fire came in 1836, but rebuilding was completed within a year. The third fire was the result of arson, and destroyed the house in 1996 leaving only the exterior walls; it was rebuilt and re-opened in November 2004. In order to celebrate this event,

4644-457: The author, "in discrete disorder", brings back memories, objects, places, forms, literature notes, quotes, and insights and tries to "... go over things or impressions, describe, or look for ways to describe." In the same year, he won first prize at the international competition for the design of an apartment block on the corner of Kochstraße and Wilhelmstraße in central Berlin . In 1984, together with Ignazio Gardella and Fabio Reinhart , he won

4752-498: The ball and puts his parent inside, after which he covers over the opening with fresh myrrh, and the ball is then of exactly the same weight as at first; so he brings it to Egypt, plastered over as I have said, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun. Such is the story they tell of the doings of this bird. In the 19th century, scholastic suspicions appeared to be confirmed by the discovery that Egyptians in Heliopolis had venerated

4860-517: The box-holder owner's transfer of shares to the Comune di Venezia in 1935 was then placed in the right wing. It was precisely thanks to this work, which also included restoration, that the foyer and the Sale Apollinee on the upper floor managed to partly withstand the collapse of the floor and the wall against the stairs to the boxes following the fire of 29 January 1996. The opera house entrance

4968-717: The centre portraying the phoenix that rises from the flames, carved in 1837 to design by Giambattista Meduna. The façade features two statues in niches representing the muses of tragedy and dance: Melpomene and Terpsichore . Above them are the masks of Comedy and Tragedy , thought to be by Domenico Fadiga. The first sculptures that adorned the entrance to the opera house, in terracotta and carved in Baroque style, were attributed to either Giuseppe Bernardi or his nephew Giovanni Ferrari, both of whom taught Canova . They were replaced in 1875 as they were in an advanced state of decay and were in any case thought incompatible, if restored, with

5076-567: The city from 1956 to 1972 ). He married the Swiss actress Sonia Gessner, who introduced him to the world of film and theatre. Culture and his family became central to his life. His son Fausto was active in movie-making both in front of and behind the camera. His daughter Vera was involved with theatre. He began his professional career at the studio of Ignazio Gardella in 1956, moving on to the studio of Marco Zanuso . In 1963 also he began teaching, firstly as an assistant to Ludovico Quaroni (1963) at

5184-435: The city remembers its past (our "collective memory"), and that we use that memory through monuments; that is, monuments give structure to the city. Inspired by the persistence of Europe's ancient cities, Rossi strove to create similar structures immune to obsolescence. He became extremely influential in the late 1970s and 1980s, as his body of built work expanded and his theories were promoted in his books The Architecture of

5292-519: The classical style of the façade. The two new statues were made in Custoza stone by Augusto Benvenuti in a new style that better suited the building. All trace of the original sculptures was lost after the theatre management sold them to Benvenuti in 1876. Two commemorative stelae were placed in the entrance vestibule after the 1837 reconstruction. The one on the right, sculpted in that year by Antonio Giaccarelli to an original design by Giambattista Meduna,

5400-474: The company's survival, first of the fire, then of the loss of its former quarters. La Fenice was inaugurated on 16 May 1792, with an opera by Giovanni Paisiello entitled I giuochi d'Agrigento set to a libretto by Alessandro Pepoli . But no sooner had the opera house been rebuilt than a legal dispute broke out between the company managing it and the owners, the Venier family. The issue was decided in favor of

5508-648: The competition for the renovation of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa , which was not fully completed until 1991. In 1985 and 1986, Rossi was director of the 3rd (respectively 4th) International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale including further away display spaces such as Villa Farsetti in Santa Maria di Sala . In 1987, he won two international competitions: one for a site at

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5616-399: The consulship of Gnaeus Cornelius and Publius Licinius ", that is, in 96 BC, that a cycle was 540 years, and that it was 215 into the cycle (i.e. it began in 311 BC). Another of Pliny's sources, Cornelius Valerianus, is cited for an appearance of the phoenix in 36 AD "in the consulship of Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius ". Pliny states that a purported phoenix seen in Egypt in 47 AD

5724-410: The consummation of the age. There are [...] three men, and also his posterities, unto the consummation of the world: the spirit-endowed of eternity, and the soul-endowed, and the earthly. Likewise, there are three phoenixes in paradise—the first is immortal, the second lives 1,000 years; as for the third, it is written in the sacred book that it is consumed. So, too, there are three baptisms—the first

5832-591: The cycle was either 500 years or 1461 years (which was the Great Year based on the Egyptian Sothic cycle ), and that it had previously been seen in the reigns first of Sesosis, then of Amasis, and finally of Ptolemy (third of the Macedonian dynasty). A third recording was made by Cassius Dio , who also said that the phoenix was seen in the consulship of Quintus Plautus and Sextus Papinius. In time,

5940-411: The decorations in the house, in a Rococo style, was based mainly on consultation of the considerable photographic archive on the opera house held in the theatre's historic archive. In order to speed up the work, two procedures were adopted. Reconstruction of the masonry and wooden framing of the building was carried out in the opera house itself by hundreds of workers employed 24 hours a day, seven days

6048-411: The emperor, Napoleon , who was expected in the opera house on Tuesday 1 December 1807 for a performance of the cantata Il Giudizio di Giove by Lauro Corniani Algarotti . Its construction required the demolition of three central boxes in both the second and third tiers. In 1808 the architect Giannantonio Selva built the definitive model with the assistance of Giuseppe Borsato on the decorations. This

6156-477: The extent of three hundred years and more after all life and sacredness had evaporated out of them. And then, finally, what time the Phoenix Death-Birth itself will require, depends on unseen contingencies.—Meanwhile, would Destiny offer Mankind, that after, say two centuries of convulsion and conflagration, more or less vivid, the fire-creation should be accomplished, and we to find ourselves again in

6264-519: The external cornice, but this was removed after the republican victory in the referendum of 2 June 1946 and replaced with the lion of St Mark , the symbol of Venice. There are some ivory-painted wooden putti in the corners of the walls on four gilt, wooden candelabra. On the papier mache-decorated wooden ceiling there is a reproduction of the painting Apotheosis of the Sciences and the Arts , originally by

6372-457: The first heaven with full power, she chased those rulers out of their heavens and cast them into the sinful world, so that there they should dwell, in the form of evil spirits upon the earth. [...], so that in their world it might pass the thousand years in paradise—a soul-endowed living creature called "phoenix". It kills itself and brings itself back to life as a witness to the judgement against them, for they did wrong to Adam and his race, unto

6480-527: The first three tiers of boxes and the stalls. The five rooms of the Sale Apollinee were originally used even when there was no show in the opera house; its bar would be open during the day and there was a billiard table in one of the rooms. On the top of the main door is a symbol of the sun, a tribute to the King of France Louis XIV . The Apollon room was thought of as a ballet room; ballet came to prominence in part because of Louis XIV's interest in it. He performed

6588-421: The five Sale Apollinee, lit by the three windows in the middle of the entrance façade. Used over the years for different purposes, the Sala Grande was an elegant venue for balls, chamber music concerts, conferences or book launches, and (before La Fenice was provided with special rooms for them) rehearsals. It was also used by the governing board in 1935. Almost completely destroyed on the night of 29 January 1996,

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6696-420: The four putti in the royal box. The guiding principle was that of recreating the original house, particularly its specific technical solution based mainly on the use of wood, carefully chosen and treated to obtain the best acoustic response. The big soundbox of the wooden house was enclosed in a protective envelope of masonry and reinforced concrete floors. The only decorative element built at least partly on site

6804-428: The general make and size are almost exactly that of the eagle . They tell a story of what this bird does, which does not seem to me to be credible: that he comes all the way from Arabia , and brings the parent bird, all plastered over with myrrh , to the temple of the Sun , and there buries the body. In order to bring him, they say, he first forms a ball of myrrh as big as he finds that he can carry; then he hollows out

6912-502: The great sages 'tis confessed The phoenix dies, and then is born again, When it approaches its five-hundredth year; On herb or grain it feeds not in its life, But only on tears of incense and amomum , And nard and myrrh are its last winding-sheet . In the 17th-century play Henry VIII by English playwrights William Shakespeare and John Fletcher , Archbishop Cranmer says in Act V, Scene v in reference to Elizabeth (who

7020-481: The heavenly Paradise , Christ , Mary , virginity , the exceptional man, and certain aspects of Christian life". Some scholars have claimed that the poem De ave phoenice may present the mythological phoenix motif as a symbol of Christ's resurrection . The modern English word phoenix entered the English language from Latin , later reinforced by French . The word first entered the English language by way of

7128-907: The hotel complex The Palace and he won the 1991 Thomas Jefferson Medal in Public Architecture from the American Institute of Architects . These prestigious awards were followed by exhibitions at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent, Belgium. In 1996, he became an honorary member of

7236-441: The house. La Fenice reopened on 14 December 2003 with an inaugural concert of Beethoven , Wagner , and Stravinsky . The first staged opera was a production of La traviata , in November 2004. Critical response to the rebuilt La Fenice was mixed. The music critic of the paper Il Tempo , Enrico Cavalotti, was satisfied. He found the colours a bit bright but the sound good and compact. However, for his colleague Dino Villatico of

7344-482: The loggia was taken down so that the original tiers of boxes could be reinstated in the so-called "Republican" house. The six boxes that had been in the center of the house until the beginning of the nineteenth century were therefore rebuilt. However, the Imperial Austrian Royal Government then returned, and on 22 August 1849 ordered reconstruction of the loggia in its original form. The decorations were entrusted once again to Giuseppe Borsato who, now over 70, remade them to

7452-430: The motif and concept of the phoenix extended from its origins in ancient Greek folklore. For example, the classical motif of the phoenix continues into the Gnostic manuscript On the Origin of the World from the Nag Hammadi Library collection in Egypt generally dated to the 4th century: Thus when Sophia Zoe saw that the rulers of darkness had laid a curse upon her counterparts, she was indignant. And coming out of

7560-425: The motto "As it was, where it was," which had been applied to the rebuilding of St Mark's bell Campanile , exactly the same as the original and taking ten years, after it collapsed in 1902. The faithful reconstruction of the house was facilitated by the comprehensive treatise on the reconstruction that had been drawn up by the Meduna brothers after the work carried out following the first fire of 1836. Reconstruction of

7668-453: The motto 'how it was, where it was', it has been fitted out with extra rehearsal areas and state-of-the-art stage equipment, while the seating capacity has been increased from 840 to 1000." La Fenice was rebuilt in 19th-century style on the basis of a design by architect Aldo Rossi who, in order to obtain details of its design, used still photographs from the opening scenes of Luchino Visconti 's film Senso (1954), which had been filmed in

7776-403: The mythical, immortal bird able to rise out of its own ashes, to symbolise the association's splendid rebirth after its misfortunes. The piece of land between Contrada Santa Maria Zobenigo and Contrada Sant'Angelo was bought for the purpose in 1790 and the private houses on it were demolished. A competition was then announced for the design of the opera house, and the committee of experts selected

7884-533: The new artistic style of the age, was opened to the public. The speed of the work, however, led to urgent restoration works to the framework being required as early as 1854 and, again under the direction of Giambattista Meduna, the house was redecorated in a style that remained unchanged until 1996. On 23 July 1935 the box-holder owners ceded their share in the opera house to the Comune di Venezia , so it went from private to public ownership, and in 1937-8 part of building

7992-429: The opera house was devastated by a first fire caused by a recently installed Austrian heater. The newspapers said it took three days and three nights to put out the fire and that various hotspots were still smouldering among the debris 18 days later. The flames entirely destroyed the house, and only the foyer and the Sale Apollinee were saved. The association decided to proceed with its immediate reconstruction. It appointed

8100-399: The original La Fenice Opera House on the night of December 1836, the entrance, by Selva, was enlarged in 1937 as part of the upgrading works directed by the engineer Eugenio Miozzi. On that same occasion some walls that divided the right side of the foyer into several spaces were demolished to make this side the mirror image, in shape and decoration, of the left. A commemorative plaque recording

8208-405: The original. A gallery runs around the circumference of the upper part of the room, with access from the three doors on the top floor. "As it was, where it was", the motto for reconstruction of La Fenice, called for the opera house to be rebuilt as it was before the 1996 fire. This principle, however, was seen applying only to the rooms of particular historic and artistic importance. The opportunity

8316-452: The painter Leonardo Gavagnin. The royal box also offers its guests the use of a private room, which has its own private entrance. The Sale Apollinee, so named because dedicated to the Greek god Apollo , father of the Muses and patron of the Arts, including music, consists of five rooms whose current layout dates from 1937. These rooms are now used during the intervals by the audience occupying

8424-431: The phoenix as similar in size to an eagle, but Lactantius and Ezekiel the Dramatist both claim that the phoenix was larger, with Lactantius declaring that it was even larger than an ostrich . According to Pliny's Natural History , aquilae narratur magnitudine, auri fulgore circa colla, cetero purpureus, caeruleam roseis caudam pinnis distinguentibus, cristis fauces, caputque plumeo apice honestante. The story

8532-529: The phoenix motif spread and gained a variety of new associations; Herodotus , Lucan , Pliny the Elder , Pope Clement I , Lactantius , Ovid , and Isidore of Seville are among those who have contributed to the retelling and transmission of the phoenix motif. Over time, extending beyond its origins, the phoenix could variously "symbolize renewal in general as well as the sun, time, the Roman Empire , metempsychosis , consecration , resurrection , life in

8640-702: The phoenix was generally believed to be colorful and vibrant, sources provide no clear consensus about its coloration. Tacitus says that its color made it stand out from all other birds. Some said that the bird had peacock-like coloring, and Herodotus 's claim of the Phoenix being red and yellow is popular in many versions of the story on record. Ezekiel the Tragedian declared that the phoenix had red legs and striking yellow eyes, but Lactantius said that its eyes were blue like sapphires and that its legs were covered in yellow-gold scales with rose-colored talons. Herodotus, Pliny, Solinus , and Philostratus describe

8748-421: The phoenix: [The Egyptians] have also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I myself have never seen, except in pictures. Indeed it is a great rarity, even in Egypt, only coming there (according to the accounts of the people of Heliopolis) once in five hundred years, when the old phoenix dies. Its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, are as follow: The plumage is partly red, partly golden, while

8856-535: The pit is not required, the platform can be raised to the level of the stalls, allowing some rows of additional seats to be added to the front, increasing capacity by 104 to 1,126. The moveable platform, which consists of two elements, can also be completely or partially raised to the level of the stage in order to enlarge it. The curtain was reproduced on the basis of an examination of historic documentation, in dark-green, deep nap, fire-resistant synthetic velvet decorated with 1,100 flowers in gilt leather. The new stage

8964-473: The premiere performance of Ernani during the carnival season. Over the next 13 years, the premieres of Attila , Rigoletto , La traviata , and Simon Boccanegra took place there. During the First World War , La Fenice was closed, but it reopened to become the scene of much activity, attracting many of the world's greatest singers and conductors. In 1930, the Venice Biennale initiated

9072-513: The products designed by Rossi. In the 1980s, Rossi designed stainless steel cafetières and other products for Alessi , Pirelli , and others. For the Venice Biennale in 1979, Rossi designed a floating Teatro del Mondo that seated 250 people. For the Venice Biennale in 1984, he designed a triumphal arch at the entrance to the exhibition site. In 2006 two pylons based on an original 1989 design by Aldo Rossi were erected in front of

9180-462: The profiles of classical poets, while the second features six allegories representing History, Poetry, Philosophy, Comedy, Tragedy, and Music. On the third tier are putti holding tablets engraved with the titles and authors of 14 of the most important operas staged in the house. A significant innovation in the appearance of the house was made by a radical change of color inside the individual boxes. The original shade of beige has now been replaced by

9288-423: The reconstruction work was that it highlight the difference between the historic sections and the recent additions. The original parts of the ceiling cornices and remaining ornamental stuccoes on the walls are darker in color, in testimony of the last fire. The same difference can be seen in the marble frames of some of the doors, repaired with new marble of a different color, and in the new flooring, which merges with

9396-495: The reflections of the painter Giorgio de Chirico . A trip to the Soviet Union to study Stalinist architecture also left a marked impression. In his writings, Rossi criticized the lack of understanding of the city in current architectural practice. He argued that a city must be studied and valued as something constructed over time; of particular interest are urban artifacts that withstand the passage of time. Rossi held that

9504-598: The school of urban planning in Arezzo , then to Carlo Aymonino at the Institute of Architecture in Venice . In 1965, he was appointed lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Milan , and the following year he published The Architecture of the City , which soon became a classic of architectural literature. His professional career, initially dedicated to architectural theory and small building work took

9612-468: The sconces in the boxes were also made following the model of a single surviving example. The main theme of the house decorations, dating from 1854, is a reproduction of a forest with acanthus leaves depicted in the papier-mache decorations, subsequently enriched with 23-carat gold leaf worked using the quartz technique and polished with agate. The paintings outside the boxes have cherubs with musical instruments or in playful mood. The first tier also includes

9720-907: The teaching profession in Italy, teaching architectural composition in Venice. In 1979, he was made a member of the prestigious Academy of Saint Luke . Meanwhile, there was international interest in his skills. He taught at several universities in the United States, including Cooper Union in New York City and Cornell University in Ithaca (New York State). At Cornell, he participated in the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies joint venture with New York's Museum of Modern Art , travelling to China and Hong Kong and attending conferences in South America. In 1981, he published his autobiography, A scientific autobiography . In this work

9828-437: The theatre was destroyed by fire. However, it was quickly rebuilt with a design provided by the architect-engineer team of the brothers Tommaso and Giovanni Battista Meduna . The interior displays a late-Empire luxury of gilt decorations, plushy extravagance and stucco. La Fenice once again rose from its ashes to open its doors on the evening of 26 December 1837. Giuseppe Verdi 's association with La Fenice began in 1844, with

9936-649: The time of its construction the house contained only boxes of the same size. Venice had lost its independence in May 1797 to the First French Empire , which then handed the city over to the Austro-Hungarian empire for eight years following the Treaty of Campoformio in 1797, and in 1805 Venice once again came under French rule. The first imperial loggia was built only provisionally in 1807 to accommodate

10044-782: The tradition of the Venice New Year's Concert started. Seven old theaters were active in Venice at the end of the eighteenth century, two for the production of plays and the others for music. The grandest of these was the Teatro San Benedetto, which stood on the site currently occupied by the Rossini cinema. Built by the Grimani family in 1755, it was subsequently assigned to the Nobile Società di Palchettisti (Noble Association of Box-holders). However, following

10152-402: The two fires that almost entirely destroyed the opera house in 1836 and 1996. Unlike the other theaters in the city, whose entrances are in secluded places like alleys and small squares, La Fenice is the only historic Venetian theatre facing onto an open space, Campo San Fantin. It is also the only one to feature a colonnade in neo-classical style in its façade. This bears the theatre's insignia in

10260-489: The typical Venetian terrazzo that remained in the room dedicated to the famous singer Maria Malibran . Thanks to these completions, the Sale Apollinee has been rebuilt on the basis of the originals, though a wider range of choice was conceded than in the house, shown by the new upholstery and furnishings in these rooms. The main bar is in the Sala Dante, named after the frescoes that once decorated its walls. This room

10368-523: The walls and ceiling of this room, renamed the Sala Guidi, were decorated with works by the Venetian painter Virgilio Guidi, which covered the scenes from Dante. The fire of 1996, however, destroyed these canvases, bringing back to light some fragments of the original decoration by Casa, which have now been completed with a sinopia to assist their reading. The Sala Grande or ballroom is he main room of

10476-473: The work of the architect Giannantonio Selva from the 29 plans submitted. Work began in 1791 and was completed just 18 months later, in April 1792. La Fenice immediately made its mark as one of the leading opera houses, noted in Italy and Europe both for the high artistic quality of its work and the splendour of its building. But, almost as if the name were the bearer of bad omens, on the night of 13 December 1836

10584-455: Was brought to the capital and exhibited in the Comitium in time for the 800th anniversary of the foundation of Rome by Romulus , though he added that "nobody would doubt that this phoenix was a fabrication". A second recording of the phoenix was made by Tacitus , who said that the phoenix had appeared instead in 34 AD "in the consulship of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius " and that

10692-470: Was designated as the design to be constructed, the actual award for best design went to his chief rival, Pietro Bianchi. However, Selva's design and finished opera house appears to have been of high quality and the one best suited to the limitations of the physical space it was obliged to inhabit. Construction began in June 1790, and by May 1792 the theatre was completed. It was named "La Fenice", in reference to

10800-695: Was destroyed by the fire that struck La Fenice in December 1836, and was rebuilt along with the rest of the house by the Meduna brothers in 1837, with the assistance of Giuseppe Borsato, who increased the splendor of the decorations. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Venice once again found itself under Habsburg rule. At the end of March 1848, following insurrectionary uprising and the Republic of Venice's consequent declaration of independence from Austria ,

10908-728: Was director of the International Architecture Section at the XV Milan Triennial Exhibition of Decorative Arts and Modern Architecture , where he presented, among others, his student Arduino Cantafora . Rossi's design ideas for the exhibition are explained in the International Architecture Catalogue and in a 16mm documentary Ornament and crime directed by Luigi Durissi and produced along with Gianni Braghieri and Franco Raggi. In 1975, Rossi returned to

11016-541: Was inaugurated in 1865 on the occasion of the sixth centenary of the birth of Dante Alighieri . To celebrate the event, the painter Giacomo Casa created a large composition within the decorative ceiling frame, showing Italy in the act of crowning the great poet and six tempera fresco paintings on the walls, with the same number of scenes from the Divine Comedy . Two of these were then replaced in 1867 with others in tempera by Antonio Ermolao Paoletti. In September 1976

11124-641: Was one of the editors of, the architectural magazine Casabella-Continuità , with the editor in chief Ernesto Nathan Rogers . Rossi left in 1964 when the chief editorship went to Gian Antonio Bernasconi. Rossi went on to work for Società magazine and Il_contemporaneo, making him one of the most active participants in the fervent cultural debate of the time. His early articles cover architects such as Alessandro Antonelli , Mario Ridolfi , Auguste Perret and Emil Kaufmann and much of this material became part of his second book, Scritti scelti sull'architettura e la città 1956-1972 ( Selected writings on architecture and

11232-671: Was one of the leading proponents of the postmodern movement. He was the first Italian to receive the Pritzker Prize for architecture. He was born in Milan , Italy . After early education by the Somascan Religious Order and then at Alessandro Volta College in Lecco in 1949, he went to the school of architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan . His thesis advisor was Piero Portaluppi and he graduated in 1958. In 1955, he had started writing for, and from 1959

11340-539: Was subject to further major restorations and alterations by engineer Eugenio Miozzi. On the night of 29 January 1996, during a period of closure for restoration works, a second fire – as the Myth said – this time arson, completely destroyed the house and most of the Sale Apollinee. Once again La Fenice rose again, faithfully reconstructed to a plan by the architect Aldo Rossi , and was reopened on 14 December 2003. In 1774,

11448-537: Was the ceiling, which reproduces the original design, giving the optical illusion of a vaulted ceiling. It features paintings of several female figures, some of whom are carrying musical instruments, and young maidens representing the Graces, Music, Dance and Aurora. The chandelier is a reproduction of the English original in gilt bronze, commissioned by the Meduna brothers from craftsmen in Liverpool in 1854. The arms of

11556-401: Was therefore taken to redesign the parts of the building that did not come into this category, resulting in the creation of three new rooms. Donna Leon 's debut novel, Death at La Fenice (1992), the first in her Commissario (Detective) Guido Brunetti detective series, centers on a mystery surrounding the sensational death by cyanide poisoning of a famous orchestra conductor, in the midst of

11664-442: Was to become Queen Elizabeth I ): ... Nor shall this peace sleep with her; but as when The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix, Her ashes new create another heir As great in admiration as herself; So shall she leave her blessedness to one, When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness, Who from the sacred ashes of her honour Shall star-like rise as great in fame as she was, And so stand fix'd ... In

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