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City Guide - Venice - Culture | ||
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Culture Venetian culture survives on the crumbs of its grandiose past. It rests firmly on its laurels as the centre of the world for music in the sixteenth century and the home of Vivaldi. Musicians dressed in foppish costumes entertain visitors with one-off renditions of Baroque music in local churches, and string quartets vie for space in St Marks Square. La Fenice, home of Venetian opera and theatre, was devastated by a fire in 1996 and is only now recovering her former glory. Gone are the days when Carlo Goldoni, the prolific Venetian dramatist, produced 16 works in one year - and had the critics rolling in the aisles. The theatre scene these days is a middle-class affair with its cap set firmly at the Lire-laden tourists. Only the cinema keeps abreast of contemporary traditions when every September La Serenissima welcomes the moneyed and the honeyed to the International Film Festival. Music: The PalaFenice (tel: (041) 520 4010; web site: www.tin.it/fenice), the temporary home for La Fenice on Tronchetto island, is a grand name for what amounts to a large tent. That said, the PalaFenice does hold over 300 more people than the original opera house and can be conveniently reached from St Mark's Square by vaporetto (marked La Fenice), departing 45 minutes before each performance. The opera season is somewhat overshadowed by neighbouring Verona, but the standard of the music is high. Tickets cost from L30,000 and can be bought two hours before each performance, or at a temporary box office alongside the Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia - a local bank in Campo San Luca - between 0830 and 1300 (tel: (041) 521 0161). Other music venues in the city include the Frari church, which offers recitals from May-October (excluding August) every Friday at 2100, and La Pieta, Riva degli Schiavoni, Castello, known as the Vivaldi church because it stands alongside the Ospedale where the composer taught. Not surprisingly, this is a popular and atmospheric spot for pretty renditions of Vivaldi. Tickets (around L35,000) can usually be bought on the door or at hotel receptions. For a serious art and music splurge, visitors should reserve seats in the Scuola di San Rocca, where the Accademia of San Rocco gives regular performances of Baroque music on period instruments. Tickets cost upwards of L50,000 and can be booked in person or by phone (tel: (041) 523 4864). Theatre: For any aficionado of Venetian commedia dell'arte a visit to the Teatro Goldoni, Calle Goldoni, San Marco (tel: (041) 520 5422), is not to be missed. Renamed to mark the playwright's death in 1867, this beautiful theatre offers a comprehensive repertoire of Venetian classics - including the rib-tickling Goldoni. Opening nights are often booked well in advance and seats must be reserved at the box office. It is advised that tickets are picked up at least an hour before the performance in order to avoid disappointment. Visitors in search of more alternative theatre, should look to Teatro a l'Avogaria, in Corte Zappa, Dorsoduro (tel: (041) 520 6130) - home of experimental theatre since 1969. Venetian professor Giovanni Poli, who died in 1979, was the guiding light behind contemporary theatre in Venice and has a strong following in the city. In keeping with his ground-breaking ideas, the theatre has no ticketing system, but merely asks spectators to make a donation. Dance: Classical ballet forms part of the season at the PalaFenice, but otherwise dance performances are thin on the ground in Venice. The best venue for contemporary dance is Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, an old joiner's shop with a good line in avant-garde performances. Neither venues have telephone numbers, so it is best to contact the tourist office for information. Film: The city has been the setting for many famous films, including Luciano Visconti's Death in Venice (1971), Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973) and, more recently, Henry James' Wings of the Dove (1997). The Accademia, Calle Gambera, Dorsoduro (tel: (041) 528 7706), is one of Venice's oldest and best-loved cinemas, with a good range of flicks, from American blockbusters to European independents. More recently, however, it has been overtaken in the popularity stakes by the brand-new Giorgione Movie D'Essai, Rio Tera de Franceschi, Cannaregio - a two-screen miniplex holding over 300 seats and showing films in the English language every Thursday (no phone). Cultural events: Two cultural festivals dominate the Venetian calendar: the Biennale and the Venice Film Festival. The Film Festival was originally founded in 1932 by Mussolini as a reflection of Italy's increasing global importance and - despite the low-key influence of Italian cinema - remains the second most important film festival in the world, after Cannes. The cinematic merry-go-round takes place around the end of August and lasts ten days. All the action is centred on the Lido where directors and starlets rub shoulders with the paparazzi in pursuit of the Leon D'Or - the festival's highest accolade. Films are shown in the Palazzo del Cinema, Lungomare G Marconi, and the Astra, Via Corfu, but tickets can only be acquired by queuing on the door. A programme of events should be available in advance at the tourist office. The Biennale is a forum for contemporary art, frequented by the enfants terribles from all over the world. From early Italian Futurists like Marinetti to America's Robert Rauschenberg and Benetton's Oliviero Toscani, the Biennale courts controversy. The event is held every other year from June to September - and is next expected to hit the headlines in 2001. Literary Notes Venetian-born novelists are an obscure bunch, although many other writers, like Henry James, have used the city as a backdrop in their novels. Literary powerhouse William Shakespeare set Othello and Merchant of Venice here, while Thomas Mann's masterpiece, Death in Venice, is one of the most resonate portrayals of nineteenth-century Venice. Other books worth seeking out for their atmospheric descriptions of the city are Ian McEwan's The Comfort of Strangers (1981), Frederick Rolfe's The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole (1986) and James Cowan's A Mapmaker's Dream (1996), which centres on the famous map in the Libreria Sansovino. |