The ill-fated performers of Venice's Teatro La Fenice, who have been performing in a circus tent since their fabled home theater burned to the ground five years ago, will finally move into a proper temporary home next month. According to an announcement from Venice mayor Paolo Costa, the Fenice company's residence at the newly-restored Teatro Malibran will be inaugurated with a gala concert on Wednesday 23 May.
The Teatro La Fenice, which opened in 1792 and was widely considered an architectural and acoustical treasure, burned down in January 1996. Two electricians were recently convicted of arson for the fire.
The name La Fenice means "phoenix," and the theater's reconstruction — its proverbial resurrection from its own ashes — was originally projected to be complete by the end of 1999. Yet delays, both legal and logistical, have plagued the project. As previously reported, 
Mayor Costa fired the contractor in charge of the La Fenice reconstruction, the German-Italian consortium Holzmann-Romagnoli, in late March of this year. The mayor and city government subsequently filed a lawsuit against the contractor, alleging that in 60% of the allotted time for the project Holzmann-Romagnoli had completed only 6% of the work.
The mayor, acting in the capacity of commissario straordinario (special commissioner), has declared that a new contractor would be chosen within 4 months. On 9 April, the consiglio d'amministrazione (board of managers) of La Fenice appointed the 60-year-old industrialist and manager Giampaolo Vianello to a four-year term as La Fenice's soprintendente. The following day, Mayor Costa signed an official request for proposals for the reconstruction. The contract will be awarded on 1 June 2001, with actual work expected to resume before the end of August and completion planned for the first half of 2003. The estimated cost of the project is US $50 million — if all goes smoothly, that is. The dismissed contractors Holzmann-Romagnoli maintain that they, and not the City of Venice, are the sole lawful owners of the plans for reconstruction as designed by the late Aldo Rossi, a renowned architect. This claim, combined with the suit filed by the city government against Holzmann-Romagnoli, may lead to protracted legal battles and further delays in the reconstruction work.
In the meantime, the orchestra and chorus of La Fenice will display their talents in the newly re-opened 2,500-seat Teatro Malibran. The city's oldest theater, the Malibran dates from the 17th century and was Venice's principal musical venue until La Fenice opened in 1792. Originally the Teatro Grimani at S. Giovanni Grisostomo (and later called Teatro Emeronittio), 
the theater was renamed in 1835 in honor of the mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran, who sang a number of benefit concerts to rescue the house from a financial crisis. Restoration work at the Malibran started in 1996, just after the Fenice fire, with the aim of quickly providing an alternative to the Fenice itself. The renovations turned out to be much more troublesome and radical than originally estimated, the overall costs amounting to approximately US $10 million. The final result looks extremely elegant; however, the scenic machinery is not yet completed and restoration work won't be completed until June 2001 at the earliest.
La Fenice's inaugural event at the Malibran will be the gala concert on 23 May in the presence of the Italian president, Dr. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Under the baton of principal conductor Isaac Karabtchevsky, soprano Angela Gheorghiu will perform arias by Bellini and Verdi; the program will also include the overture from Wagner's Parsifal and (naturally) the Italian national anthem. On 26 April, Karabtchevsky will conduct the Fenice ensembles in Mahler's Totenfeier and the first Italian performance of Henze's Richard Wagnerische Klavierlieder.
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reported by Carlo Vitali and Matthew Westphal
