From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Teatro La Fenice
is a famous
opera house
in
Venice
,
Italy
. People often call it simply
La Fenice
. Its name comes from the
Italian
word
Fenice
, meaning
Phoenix
. The Phoenix is a
mythical
bird. It dies in fire and is born again from the ashes.
An older opera house in Venice called the
Teatro San Benedetto
burnt down in 1774. It was the main, opera house in Venice. Some
noblemen
built it again, but the Venier, a famous family in Venice, made them sell the new theatre to them. So, the noblemen built a new opera house in 1792. They called it Teatro La Fenice. The first opera performed there was
Giovanni Paisiello
's
I giochi di Agrigento
(The Games of
Agrigento
).
[1]
La Fenice burnt down in 1836. It was built again in 1837. On 29 January 1996, La Fenice burnt down again. It was set on fire by two men working on the building. They were sent to prison for
arson
.
[2]
La Fenice was built again in 2003 in the style of the old one.
[3]
The
architect
, Aldo Rossi, used pictures and
movies
of the old La Fenice to plan the new one.
Five of
Giuseppe Verdi
's operas had their first performance at Teatro La Fenice:
- Beauvert, Thierry (1996).
Opera Houses of the World
. The Vendome Press.
ISBN
0-86565-978-8