There’s such a thing as an audio tour that’s just too-damn comprehensive. The audio tour at La Fenice was a good example of this. “Each of the putti holds a tablet with the title and author of one of the 14 most important operas first performed at La Fenice. The first one, performed in 17__, was….”  “Maria Calas performed at La Fenice on many occasions. I will now list all of them in EXCRUCIATING DETAIL” Maybe all the detail is born from a sense of pride at the painstaking recreation of La Fenice, burned to the ground in 1996. Maybe it’s designed for people who care a whole lot more about opera than I do. Either way, the good people in La Fenice’s marketing department were going to make sure I got my 7 Euro worth for the audio tour, even if it killed me.

Still, there are worse things one can do than sit in an ornate auditorium, richly decorated with cherubs, and allegorical paintings looking up at the ceiling, painted in such a way as to create the optical illusion of a domed sky with the Graces flitting about it, and at the curtain, covered in gilded flowers. Hanging from the decorated facades of the boxes and galleries were very modern and sophisticated stage lights- making me drool with envy. Ahh, the things I could do at the Powerhouse with just a couple of moving lights. If only Maria Callas had performed there- think of the money I could raise for upgrades. One of the most interesting things about La Fenice was that, even though it was reconstructed “As it was, where it was” (the official Venitian motto for rebuilding stuff that falls apart or burns down)- it had been renovated, redesigned and even rebuilt after other other fires so that it’s hard to say exactly what it should look like to be historically accurate. The Royal Box, for instance, was not part of the original design but was put in for Napoleon, and then redecorated, expanded, removed and put back in as the political realities shifted. So, while it can be a little sad to think that the La Fenice we see is a shiny new copy and not the original, it can also be seen as just another phase in the life of a living building and a reflection of Venice today – integrating the irreplaceable aesthetics of the past with the latest in technology and the creature comforts expected by audiences of the 21st century.

 After La Fenice we rode the vaporetto towards Cannagreggio. We stopped for lunch at an authentic Venetian Chinese owned snack bar and had our first and only “spritz”- a deceptively refreshing-looking beverage that tastes a bit like fruity bile. We headed towards the old Ghetto. The Venetians were the first to come up with the bright idea of putting all the Jews in their own neighborhood in 1516. In fact, the word “Ghetto” comes from Venice- meaning “iron foundry”- the previous occupant of the neighborhood given over to the Jews. There wasn’t much to see in the Ghetto- the buildings were built taller to house the Jewish population as it grew, and there was a holocaust memorial against one wall of the square. The real charm of the neighborhood was how quiet it was and removed from the tourist centers of Rialto and San Marco. A Venice that people still live in- take the vaporetto to work, let their kids play soccer in the courtyards of ancient churches and synagogues, and try to ignore the tourists that simultaneously keep the city afloat and threaten to sink it.

The best way to view the pictures (in my opinion) is to click on the first one which opens a larger view, then click Next in that new window. This way you can also read the captions.

Written by: Eric Sims on March 2, 2008.