Teatro La Fenice

Teatro La Fenice stands on Campo San Fantin in the San Marco district of Venice, a short walk from St Mark's Square. It opened in 1792, built to a design by Giannantonio Selva after the company lost the rights to its earlier theatre. The name means the Phoenix, recalling the company's rise from that loss.

The name proved fitting. Fire destroyed the theatre in 1836, and it was rebuilt within a year. In January 1996 it burned again in a fire set by two electricians whose company faced fines for delays. Reconstruction followed the 19th-century design closely, based partly on film from Luchino Visconti's movie Senso, under the architect Aldo Rossi with the motto as it was, where it was, and the theatre reopened in December 2003. The first staged opera in the rebuilt house was La traviata in November 2004.

La Fenice has a long record of premieres. Rossini's Tancredi and Semiramide and Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi were first staged here, as were five operas by Verdi, including Rigoletto in 1851 and La Traviata in 1853. In the 20th century it hosted premieres of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and Britten's The Turn of the Screw. The horseshoe auditorium has tiers of gilded boxes and the former royal box. The theatre stages opera, ballet and concerts, and its New Year concert is broadcast on Italian television.

Visitors can see the theatre on a self-guided tour with audio guide when no rehearsals or performances are taking place. Performance tickets are sold on the official website. Smart dress is customary at evening performances.

The 1836 fire was repaired quickly by the Meduna brothers, who had the house open again by December 1837. Verdi's long link with the theatre began with Ernani in 1844. In 1935 the box holders handed ownership to the City of Venice, which still owns it.

With the orchestra pit platform raised, the auditorium seats 1,126. Readers of crime fiction may know the house from Donna Leon's novel Death at La Fenice, published in 1992.