Travel tips for opera lovers – Venice and Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky in Venice

The series about historical places of opera art & culture. Get to know exciting excursion and travel ideas for opera lovers. This time: Igor Stravinsky in Venice.

All Destinations on google maps with links to detailed Blogposts:

Igor Strawinski in Venice

Stravinsky, the famous composer of “L’oiseau du feu” and “Sacré du printemps” had a special relationship with Venice, he loved this city, but he never lived there. When he visited Europe for the first time after the Second World War – he had spent the war and post-war years in the USA – Venice was the first stop. There, at the Teatro alla Fenice in 1951, he conducted his most performed opera, “The rake’s progress.” It’s a strange opera, like a throwback to times past, with harpsichord-accompanied recitatives and music that, in this atonal age, is oddly tonal in composition and at times reminiscent of Mozart, Handel and Donizetti.

TO THE COMPLETE BIOGRAPHY OF STRAVINSKY

TO THE TRAVEL GUIDE VENICE FOR OPERA AND CLASSIC LOVERS

Destination San Michele Cemetery

At his own request, he was laid to rest next to his wife in this island cemetery in 1971, so that music lovers from all over the world could visit the grave.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not?), a few meters from Stravinsky’s grave stands that of Sergei Diaghilev, the famous impresario of the Ballets russes, who died in Venetian exile in 1929. At the beginning of his career, Stravinsky was commissioned by Diaghilev to compose his most famous works, the ballet The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), Le sacré du printemps (1913) and Pulcinella (1920).

Stravinsky and Diaghilev:

Strawinki’s tomb: