VENICE – Travel guide for opera, classical music and culture

In 1613, the 46-year-old Monteverdi found himself in difficult economic circumstances. His underpaid job as maestro at the court of Mantua was on the line because the new duke was not a lover of the arts like his just-deceased predecessor. So it came in handy for Monteverdi that the position as music director of St. Mark’s Cathedral became vacant. In this important position he found the artistic and economic recognition he had been seeking.

When the plague struck in 1632, he lost his son and became ill. After his recovery, under the impact of the plague epidemic, he had himself ordained a priest.

L’incoronazione di Poppea a work for the carnival and the first civic opera

Already over 70 years old, he reinvented himself once again when Venice opera opened up to secular themes and needed operas for the carnival season. The opera was independent of a court theater and was attended by a middle-class audience seeking entertainment during the carnival season. He abandoned the usual mythological material and wrote the scathing satire “L’incoronazione di Poppea.” One of the most successful creations was the Amme Arnaulta, sung by a castrato, making Monteverdi, appropriately for Venice’s carnival season in 1643 at the age of 76, the inventor of the drag queen (more on this in the digression in the music section of this guide). The theater of the first performance, San Giovanni e Paolo, no longer exists. Shortly after the first performance of the “Incoronazione” Monteverdi died in Venice.

Venice was the gateway for Rossini’s career. He arrived in Venice at the age of 18, wrote various comedic one-act operas for the smaller theater.

With the commissioned works for the Venetian Teatro San Moisè, Rossini developed at a breathtaking pace into a leading opera composer. In this renowned theater, for which Vivaldi had already written, he wrote several one-act operas in a short time. Even the first commissioned work (“La cambiale di matrimonio”), which a family friend had arranged for the 18-year-old, was a success. The overture of the one-act opera “Il signor Bruschino” achieved anecdotal fame, in which the second violins have to tap their bows rhythmically on their music stands several times, producing a charming effect. The upscale gentlemen at the music stands, however, were too embarrassed by this effect of the 18-year-old schnoz and refused to perform the tapping sounds, causing a considerable uproar.

At the age of 21 received a commission from the great Fenice and made his breakthrough with “Tancredi”, leaving the lagoon city for Naples.

There are not many traces of Rossini left in Venice, the Teatro San Moisè is demolished, the Teatro San Benedetto (the premiere theater of the “Italiana in Algeri“) has been a cinema for ages (Multisala Rossini), only the Fenice is still standing.

The young Rossini in his Venice years:

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.

Stravinsky with Dhiaghilev:

The Lagoon City had the honor to premiere two of the greatest Verdian operas at the Teatro la Fenice, the “Traviata” and the “Rigoletto“. One of them became an announced fiasco and the other a surprising triumph. There were only two years between them. We will talk about the fiasco in the musical section at the end.

Not much remains of Verdi’s traces in Venice, all the more his work is cultivated.

The Fenice has a glamorous past. Premieres by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi (including Rigoletto, La traviata and Simon Boccanegra), Rossini and Meyerbeer testify to the importance of Venetian theater.

The theater experienced a glamorous resurgence with the Biennale after World War II. Commissioned works led to premieres by Stravinsky, Berio, Prokoffiev and Britten made the Fenice an important artistic center.

Teatro la Fenice:

https://www.teatroallascala.org/en/index.html

The theater was destroyed in 1997 by a fire intentionally set by workmen. Actually, the fire was supposed to be localized, but since the canals were drained for renovation, the fire department could not arrive fast enough. It was rebuilt true to the original and ceremoniously reopened in 2004 with the Traviata.

The facade is the only element that survived the two great fires of 1836 and 1997. The firebird, Phoenix, which made the theater rise again from the ashes after the destruction caused by the fire in 1837, is immortalized on the insignia of the theater and gave its name to the theater. The achievement was gigantic, the theater was reopened only a year after the fire on the 13th of December!

The opera house is magnificently decorated, particularly interesting is the design of the ceiling, which is straight, but through the painter’s work creates the impression of a vaulted space.
The orchestra pit is retractable, allowing a few more rows of seating for concerts.

In his function as Kapellmeister, Monteverdi took special care of the choirs. The excellent acoustics of St. Mark’s Cathedral allowed the choirs to be placed in the room. Listen to the beautiful hymn “Ave maris stella” from the Marian Vespers from Gardiner’s brilliant recording from St. Mark’s Cathedral in 1990.

If you have the opportunity to listen to music in St. Mark’s Basilica, take it.

In 1630 Venice lost 50,000 inhabitants to the plague, which was a third of its residents. The Doge vowed to endow a church for the cessation of the plague. This became the magnificent Santa Maria della Salute opposite the Doge’s Palace. Monteverdi wrote a Mass of thanksgiving for it and performed it in the opening of the church.

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Monteverdi’s tomb is in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari.

Monteverdi’s tomb: