 It
was a night that is still vivid in the minds of many Venetians.
The Teatro La Fenice, one of the famous opera houses
in Venice, considered to be the most beautiful in the world was
burnt to a cinder on the night of January 29, 1996. The fire which
according to some eye witnesses started around 9 in the evening
could be quelled only after a 9 hour fierce battle and left only
a shell of the imposing building, while the interiors were completely
destroyed, posing a grave risk to the structure.
 A
routinely patrolling police boat first detected the smoke pouring
out of the front of the theatre. Fire fighting boats were immediately
summoned but little could be achieved since the construction company
appointed to attend to renovation work had drained the canals that
led to the opera house. Helicopters then joined the rescue efforts
and in a daring bid filled buckets of water from the channel down
below, fastened them to the bottom of the chopper and made valiant
attempts to douse the roaring flames with this pitiful supply. Houses
in the immediate vicinity were evacuated for fear of the inferno
spreading but to the good fortune of the Venetians that night, it
was hardly windy to encourage the flames and cause more destruction
than what was already accomplished.
 La
Fenice took birth from the leading opera house, San Benedetto
Theatre that was also a victim of a devastating fire in
1774. The theatre company decided to build a new opera house elsewhere,
after a dispute with the owners of the original building. Construction
began in 1790 and the auditorium was ready by May 1792. It was aptly
named, La Fenice alluding to the Phoenix – the mythical bird
that rose from its own funeral ashes to live a new cycle of life
with renewed youth, very like the theatre company itself! The year
1836, again saw the opera house burn down but within a period of
twelve months it was brought back to its original glory. Names of
great maestros like Rossini, Bellini,
Donizetti and of course Verdi
are still associated with La Fenice.
 The
1996 destruction was by far a different and murky story. There were
deep suspicions, the employees of the two contractors Holzmann
and Romagnoli deputed in the renovation of La Fenice,
themselves initiated the fire in an act of sabotage because they
feared, as they did not adhere to the time schedule set to complete
the project, they would suffer heavy penalties for the delay. Investigations
revealed that the fire that fateful night was at three places of
the building – two in the front and one in the attic at the
opposite end of the auditorium. In hindsight, it appeared as if
the front fires were meant to keep the fire fighters distracted
while the back one raged unhindered and successfully reduced the
whole place to rubble. In a strange coincidence too, the fire alarm
had been switched off, ostensibly to test a new system that was
to be put in place after a few days.
The investigators had good reason to believe that the two contracting
firms were foxed by the aquatic logistics of building-construction
in a place like Venice and therefore lagged behind in their schedule.
They then ingeniously struck on this sabotage plan and later even
made a cheeky demand for more funds to finish the project that they
claimed was delayed by fire.
 The
administration of Venice might have fallen a prey to this ploy but
for Paolo Costa, a no-nonsense, left-of-centre
professor and a former federal minister of public works, who won
the seat of the Mayor of Venice in 2000 and personally took charge
of getting the renovation of the beleaguered auditorium on track
again. He first, discharged the defaulting contractors through a
legal battle. Then in 2002, managed to have the reconstruction work
handed to Saciam – a Venetian construction
firm of repute that had earlier restored the Malibran Theatre and
proved its credentials.
Costa erected a digital clock at the construction site and set
the deadline for completion of most works at December 2003. The
move kept the tempo of the work going at a smart pace and the spirits
of the local Venetians buoyant! It succeeded in reminding the workers
too, how little time was left and goaded them to give their best!
International funds poured in to make the auditorium reverberate
again to the notes of music and operas. The Americans for instance,
paid for the beautiful ceiling, while the British provided the impressive
chandeliers that dot and sparkle at the opera house today. The French
were not far behind and paid to become members of La Fenice’s
Board!
The restoration of La Fenice to its original glory was nothing
short of a miracle, given the fact that there was neither space
to work, nor time to waste. The concrete used in the building had
to be pumped underwater from a platform on the Grand Canal. Many
things like the ceiling had to be put together elsewhere and then
brought down to the site for installation, piece at a time. Much
of the building material was ferried by boats, estimated to be some
5 thousand trips altogether! The spirit of those involved was such,
that every hurdle was met and humbled eventually!
Finally the new theatre was ready, dressed in its marble foyers,
magnificent stairways and beautiful flooring, exactly as it was
when it first started in 1792. It had a very emotional reopening
with an inaugural concert of Beethoven, Wagner
and Stravinsky on 14 December 2003. In November
2004, La Fenice hosted its inaugural opera, Verdi’s La Traviata
in honor of the maestro who wrote it in 1853 and premiered his work
at the very theatre, with four other operas following, years ago.
Despite the general relief and euphoria at the reopening of the
auditorium, there were people who claimed it would have been more
practical to build a brand new opera house instead of the 38 million
pounds spent on the entire restructuring project. The theatre’s
administer Giampaolo Vianello silenced them with
only a few words, truly said, ‘ But this is Venice, we cant
do that! We must respect the past!’ |
