15/01/2009
La Fenice Theatre, Opera season 2009
Opera season at La Fenice Theatre 2009
The Grand Teatro La Fenice is no doubt one of the main attraction in this early part of the year. The New Year’s concert (they where actually 3) has offered an official welcome to 2009. And then, in the month of January the Venetian theatre, now operation as a foundation, raises the curtains on its new Opera Season, one of the most prestigious in Italy. The season program includes nine productions, six of them new. The season opener (Friday January 23) is the Venice premier of Die tote Stadt ( The Dead City) by Erich Wolfgang Korngold ( also on Jan. 25, 27, 29 and 31) .
The opera is set in the late 19th century in a decadent Bruges in Belgium. Following to the death of his beloved wife Marie, Paul transforms a room in his house into a shrine dedicated to her memory. He then meets a dancer, Marietta, who has a striking resemblance to his late wife. Paul joins Marietta for a night of love, that becomes a nightmare, as the new woman desecrates his most precious memories of his beloved and makes a mockery of the widower’s deepest sentiments. When Marietta returns to his house to get an umbrella and roses she has left behind, Paul make up his mind not to see her again, but also to go away from Bruges, the dead city, debating the benefit, for the living, in loving the dead too much.
The opera, conducted by Eliahu Inbal and directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi, who also designed the set and costumes, is a new production of the Fenice Theatre Foundation, coproduced with the Massimo Theatre Foundation of Palermo. It starts the German tenor Stefan Vinke in the role of young widower Paul (the lead) and Norwegian soprano Solveig Kringelborn in the role of Mariette ( the dancer). It will be followed by Roméo and Juliette by Charles Gounod ( February 19 2009) an new Fenice Theater production, coproduced with the Verona Arena and the Verdi Theatre of Trieste.
The Opera season performances and Orchestra season concerts – as well as special events, such as the Grand Ball of the Cavalchina during Carnival in February – are noly few of the opportunities to experience the moving sensation that this theatre, which rose from its ashes just five years ago, has been granting to audiences for over two centuries.
There are however other ways you can enter into this magical music temple, affordable for all and with no calendar restrinctions: There are tours with audio-guides that will help you get to know everything and more about the theatre. The tour among the stucco and gold decorations of the celebrated halls will help you share backstage secrets of the theatre and its historical stars, tracing its fascinating story from its origins to these very days. You can have informations, and help from our concierge who will assist you with great pleasure.