From our blog itVenice
It is with these labels "La Fenice restarts n. 1, the Phoenix restarts n. 2,… n. 3,… n. 4"On the Youtube channel that the musicians of the Venetian theater paid homage to their audience and, above all, to their theater closed for almost four months due to the emergency Coronavirus. It was the notes of Vivaldi and Albinoni, but also Copland, Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Bach, Mozart, Pachelbel, Tchaikovsky, Barber, Strauss, Schubert, Piazzolla that filled these empty spaces full of emotions. The musicians performed in the stalls, invading the physical space where the seats for the audience, now removed, are normally placed. This will be the new structure of the theater with the reopening to the public. Appointment on July 5th at 19pm. An appointment that has the flavor of a premiere not only because the theater reopens after a long time and after an event that has shocked the world. But also because La Fenice has decided to reinvent new theatrical perspectives by proposing innovative models of enjoyment of the live musical show.
That is to say, an imposed change that instead of a limitation becomes a resource. This is the strength of the "new"Phoenix conceived by the superintendent and artistic director of the Theater, Fortunato Ortombina, at the time of Covid
“In difficult moments - he explains - everyone must try to do their best. We have decided to make the horse move. Do not suffer limitations but rather interpret them by changing the parameters, the context, the space. Going to discover resources to make a show in every inch of the theater. In normal times the canonical spaces of each theater are three: the stalls, the orchestra pit, the stage. Between the stalls and the orchestra pit there is the balustrade, between the orchestra and the stage there is the curtain behind which the show is organized. Spaces conventionally agreed as divided and from whose division the tension comes out, which is also an ingredient of the show. Despite the limitations imposed by the Coronavirus, we had to maintain this tension by modifying the spaces.
In what way?
“The stage of the Phoenix is huge. In Venice, the largest area, there is only the Great Council Hall in the Doge's Palace. We therefore thought about the construction of the keel of a ship that starts from where the stalls ends and the orchestra pit begins. It rests on the edge of the stage and projects upwards for 26 meters up to one meter from the back wall of the theater. Up there at the top, where the bow ends, you will see the keel. In the stalls, on the other hand, you will see the section of the backbone of an ark under construction. I want to emphasize this, not the carcass of a shipwreck found at the bottom of the sea but an ark that is being built. As if we were all Ulysses who are leaving for a new and unknown world ”.
E how many will be the Ulysses who, attending the show together with the musicians and all the workers, will be able to leave for this new and unknown world?
“In normal times the capacity of the Fenice is about 1000 seats. Today the realistic hypothesis is that in the theater we will be able to accommodate about 350 people, distributed between the boxes (because there will be musicians in the stalls) and the upper part of the prow of this hypothetical ark under construction. With another reason of interest. The spectators who will sit up there will see a spectacle that those who come to the Phoenix never see. Usually the spectator is seated with their eyes turned towards the stage. The forty people seated in the bow, on the other hand, will see the Phoenix as the tenor sees it when he normally sings. It is a prodigy of beauty that cannot be imagined ”.
The first appointment on 5 July sees the brass of the orchestra and the artists of the Fenice choir on stage with music by Copland, Monteverdi, Gabrieli and Bach, a not random choice….
"Indeed. The brasses will serve to make a page in the history of universal art shine, which is the Venetian musical renaissance. And then the music of Giovanni Gabrieli, teacher of the Scuola di San Marco in the sixteenth century. Using the space, with opposing groups of musicians in the aerial routes of the Basilica of San Marco, Gabrieli created a musical repertoire based on the principle of the spatialization of sound. That is, the diffusion of music in space. An idea that was born between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and which today becomes fundamental to be able to continue making music while respecting social distancing. This distance will be between the musicians and there will be with the audience. And not thanks to the mask but rather to the programs. It will therefore become a resource for entertainment, not an inconvenience ".
The July program includes an opera, Ottone in Villa by Antonio Vivaldi
“Even in these difficult times, La Fenice does not give up on opera because we are an opera house. Since you couldn't do a show with a 100-piece orchestra, I looked for an opera (which wasn't on the bill) with a number of musicians who could play safely in a certain space, leaving room for the singers to play. This is why Ottone in Villa, whose author is a Venetian and is called Vivaldi…. Sometimes the limitations lead to choices that otherwise would not be made ".
Looking forward to returning to normal times ...
“We are sailing on sight, we don't know what awaits us in the fall. If there is no second wave, I hope to be able to inaugurate the 20-2021 season in a normal way on November 2022. In the meantime I have to try to make a show anyway and to present original projects to the public that still allow people to enjoy this theater. For now it will be a close audience, but the world is still there and follows the Phoenix even from afar. In the first evenings of streaming we received a lot of positive comments, phrases of appreciation from all over the world. Everyone's provenance is impressive. I particularly remember the beautiful message from a Brazilian, with a clearly Italian surname. But this will always remain a parallel activity. It serves to keep a long-distance relationship alive but it can never replace live theater ".
In the meantime, La Fenice will start again, live, from 5 July to 23. With its audience, thanks to a brilliant remodeling of the spaces, worthy of a great international theater. The program is available on the ,.
