On the evening of 29 January 1996 two electricians went home from work in a jaunty mood. They had just ignited a little fire in the wiring they themselves had laid, shoddily and behind schedule. This, they hoped, would save them from paying impending damages for breach of contract of some 15–25,000 Euros – which indeed it did. Back home, sitting with mamma, pasta e vino, they turned as pale as ghosts on hearing just how successful their plan had been: Venice’s Gran Teatro La Fenice had been razed to the ground. All that remained of one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world, deeply steeped in tradition, was a heap of putrid ashes. “Venice has lost its soul”, lamented Luciano Pavarotti with a tearful voice on the Italian TV channel RAI and promised to give a benefit concert on the Piazza San Marco for its reconstruction – which came to nothing.

But this was not the first time destiny had struck the “Fenice”. It had been named after the firebird phoenix since it too had literally risen from the ashes. In 1773 Venice’s leading opera house had burned down. Its successor “San Benedetto” was reconstructed in just two years and christened “La Fenice” in allusion to the fire. Everything went well for forty-four years: “La Fenice” set the tone in this city so obsessed with opera and cheerfully outclassed its rivals – which at one point numbered a mind-boggling twenty (!) opera stages. The house was witness to more than a hundred premieres. Bellini, Donizetti und Vaccai scored triumphant successes here, and to climb to the top of the ladder as a singer or a primadonna you first had to have been fêted in “La Fenice”. On 13 December 1836 – for causes unknown – the opera house again went up in flames, with only a section of the façade surviving. Boats loaded with smouldering ashes on the canals of Venice…

A phoenix does not remain in the ashes forever, and this time it was in a particular hurry to return to life. Reconstruction took no more than a year and soon the house was restored to its full former glory. Un miracolo, made possible by donations from the people of Venice, charitable assistance, lottery funds and the entire inheritance of a wealthy merchant – given, incidentally, much to the displeasure of his family.

Back to the third fire in 1996. This time it took eight years for the phoenix to grow back its golden plumage. Mishaps, misfortune and misjudgements, a German-Italian bank consortium, a veritable deluge of lawsuits, mismanagement, financial shambles, intrigues and incompetence – everything the heart did not desire did happen, and most of it several times over. Then, finally, on 14 December 2003, a new miracolo: the reopening of the Gran Teatro La Fenice, attended by the Italian president Carlo Ciampi, six government ministers, Lord Mayor Costa (the patriarch of Venice) and other grandees from around the world who treated themselves to tickets costing 3000 Euros upwards. With Ricardo Muti as conductor, the audience marvelled at the faithfully restored opera house that has been returned to what it always had been: one of the world’s most magnificent theatres. A dream in gold, lagoon blue and dusky pink, enchantingly illuminated, intimate and breathtaking in one.

Detailed information about the programme etc. in Italian and English: www.teatrolafenice.it