Venice's opera house opens, rising from ashes

VENICE, Italy - Seven years after its beloved opera house burned down, Venice threw itself a big party Sunday to celebrate the rebirth of the La Fenice with a gala concert that drew the Italian president and Hollywood stars.

To Venetians and opera lovers throughout the world, the 18th century theater represents the soul of this unique lagoon city, and its resurrection from the ashes - Fenice means phoenix - was cause for celebration across Italy.

"The Great Fenice Theater is given back to Italy and the world!" Venice Mayor Paolo Costa declared at the start of the performance. "And the music announces to us that the nightmare is over."

Fans lined up throughout the day to admire the newly polished marble facade, with the Fenice (pronounced feh-NEE-chay) symbol, a gilded phoenix, hanging in the entranceway.

"We are all happy to see the Fenice the way it was," said Stella Marchisello, a cashier in a fast-food restaurant down the street.

With so many VIPs in town for the opening, security was tight Sunday afternoon, with carabinieri paramilitary police patrolling Venice's fog-shrouded Grand Canal and the narrow streets and bridges.

Riccardo Muti conducted the La Fenice orchestra and chorus in Sunday night's inaugural concert, which featured Ludwig van Beethoven's fitting overture, Consecration of the House, and works by composers whose lives were touched by Venice.

Muti, in town for rehearsals earlier in the week, called it a "great moment for Italian culture and music around the world."

He conducted at the Fenice for the first time in 1970 at the beginning of his musical career, and hosted the orchestra and chorus at Milan's La Scala right after the 1996 fire.

Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, seated in the royal box, was at the head of a jet-set guest list of Hollywood stars and Italian glitterati, who dressed to the nines for the occasion in black tie and long gowns. This being a city of canals and tiny bridges, they all had to get to the theater on foot.

Konstantin Becker, a French horn player in the orchestra for 14 years, recalled his emotions upon returning to the reborn theater for rehearsals. "After so many years of exile, I felt at home again," he said.

At the time of the fire, La Fenice was under renovation. Two electricians set the theater ablaze during the night of Jan. 29, 1996, to avoid stiff fines their company risked for being behind in its work. They were sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

In the ensuing years, the reconstruction of the ornate 18th century theater was delayed by red tape, political disputes and the mere difficulty of reaching the site, which is between two canals connected by tiny bridges.

Using sketches and photographic documentation, the project by the late Aldo Risso sought to reproduce the original theater built in 1792, from its inlayed wooden floors and frescoed ceilings to the minute papier-mache gilded detailing of the loges. The total cost of the renovation dubbed dov'era, com'era (where it was, as it was) is estimated at $90-million.

New seating gives the renovated concert hall 1,076 seats, and new rehearsal and conference rooms have been created below the orchestra floor. The new stage curtain was donated by Italian fashion designer Laura Biagiotti.

Italian critics who attended preview tours of the theater have written that the restored colors and gilding might startle those used to the worn look of centuries.

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