Founded in 1792, La Fenice Theatre was the venue in the 19th century for numerous world premieres of operas by Rossini (Tancredi, Sigismondo, Semiramide), Bellini (I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Beatrice di Tenda), Donizetti (Belisario, Pia de’ Tolomei, Maria de Rudenz), and Verdi (Ernani, Attila, Rigoletto, La traviata, Simon Boccanegra).
With a capacity of one thousand seats, excellent acoustics (further improved after the recent reconstruction following the devastating fire of 1996), a resident orchestra and choir of 98 and 66 members respectively, and a large international audience alongside its regular local patrons, La Fenice continues to be a production centre of paramount importance. It hosts over a hundred opera performances annually, a significant symphonic season entrusted to conductors of international renown (notably the frequent collaborations with Myung-Whun Chung, Riccardo Chailly, Jeffrey Tate, Vladimir Temirkanov, and Dmitri Kitayenko), complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and Mahler, and a focus on contemporary repertoire, particularly Venetian composers like Nono and Maderna, as well as ballet performances and chamber music concerts.
