Music in Venice, to all intents
and purposes, means classical
music - rock bands rarely come
nearer than Padua, and big names
stop at Verona. The top-bracket
music
venues are La Fenice
(temporarily rehoused on
Tronchetto) and the Teatro
Goldoni in Calle Goldoni, in the
San Marco sestiere.
Prior to the fire of 1996, La
Fenice was the third-ranking
Italian opera house after
Milan's La Scala and Naples' San
Carlo. While the building is
being reconstructed,
performances are held in a vast
marquee called Palafenice
, over on Tronchetto; a special
water-bus transports
ticket-holders from San Marco to
the tent. Tickets for
Palafenice can be bought from
the temporary box office in the
Cassa di Risparmio building on
Campo S. Luca (Mon-Fri
8.30am-1.30pm; tel 041.521.0161;
fax 041.786.580), or at
Palafenice itself, where the box
office is open from two hours
before the start of the night's
show. Tickets usually start at
around L30,000/16, though prices
are higher for the more
glamorous productions, and
you'll pay twice as much for the
opening night of a production as
you would for the same seat
later in the run. The opera
season runs from late November
to the end of June, punctuated
by ballet performances.
The city's major venue for
classical music concerts used to
be the Sale Apollinee in La
Fenice. When La Fenice is at
last rebuilt it may reclaim that
position, but for now the
principal concert hall is the Teatro
Malibran (by the church of
San Giovanni Crisostomo), which
will soon re-open after years of
dereliction. At the time of
writing, box-office details were
not available - the tourist
offices should be able to supply
programmes.
Music performances at the Goldoni
(box office 9.30am-12.30pm &
4-6pm; tel 041.520.5422) are
somewhat less frequent than at
La Fenice and the Malibran; the
repertoire here tends to be more
populist, with a jazz series
cropping up every now and then.
For most of the year the Goldoni
specializes in the works of the
eponymous writer.
Classical concerts, with a
strong bias towards the
eighteenth century, are also
performed at the Palazzo
Prigione Vecchie , the Scuola
Grande di San Giovanni
Evangelista , the Scuola
Grande di San Rocco, Palazzo
Mocenigo (San Stae) and the
churches of Santo Stefano
, the Frari , San Stae
, San Samuele , San
Bartolomeo , Zitelle
, San Barnaba , the Ospedaletto
and the Pietą (the most
regularly used - it specializes
in Vivaldi in particular). The
average ticket price for these
concerts is around L30,000
(often with a L10,000 reduction
for students and children),
which is expensive for
performances more often
distinguished by enthusiasm than
professionalism - for the same
price you can get to hear real
stars at La Fenice. The state
radio service sometimes records
concerts at the Palazzo Labia
, to which the public are
admitted free of charge, as long
as seats are reserved in advance
(tel 041.716.666). In summer the
Italian-German Cultural
Association presents free
chamber music concerts every
Saturday at 5.30pm in the Palazzo
Albrizzi , Fondamenta S.
Andrea, Cannaregio.
Up beat and down market from
the theater and classical
concerts, some bars have
live music: the main ones are Paradiso
Perduto in Cannaregio and Da
Codroma in Dorsoduro. They
don't charge for entrance, but a
mark-up on the drinks pays for
the bands.
