World City Guide

Culture

Venetian culture survives on the crumbs of its grandiose past. It rests firmly on its laurels as the home of Vivaldi and the centre of the world for music in the 16th century. Musicians dressed in foppish costumes entertain visitors with one-off renditions of Baroque music in local churches, while string quartets vie for space in St Mark’s Square. La Fenice, the home of Venetian opera and theatre, was devastated by a fire in 1996. 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 firmly set at the euro-laden tourists. With the declining population and young people choosing to leave, Venice’s home-grown performance groups are virtually non-existent. The city has to rely on outside artists to spice up the cultural scene. Only the cinema keeps abreast of contemporary traditions when, every September, Venice welcomes the moneyed and the honeyed to the International Film Festival.

For information and listings, A Guest in Venice is published fortnightly in summer and monthly during the winter season and is available from good hotels. Information is also available online (website: www.doge.it). Tickets for major cultural events are available for purchase from Ciaoticket (tel: (848) 888 444; website: www.ciaoticket.it).

Music: The temporary home for La Fenice, the PalaFenice, Tronchetto island (tel: (041) 786 511; fax: (041) 786 580; website: www.teatrolafenice.it), 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 is 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 20 and are available at the venue from 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.

Other music venues in the city include the Frari Church, San Polo 3003, which offers recitals from May to 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 renditions of Vivaldi. Tickets costing around 20 are usually available on the door or at hotel receptions. For a serious art and music splurge, visitors should reserve seats in the Scuola di San Rocco, Campo San Rocco, San Polo 3052, where the Accademia of San Rocco (website: www.musicinvenice.com) gives regular performances of Baroque music on period instruments. Tickets cost upwards of 25 and visitors can book these in person or by telephone (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) 240 2011; fax: (041) 520 5241; website: www.teatrogoldonive.it), 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 works from 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 be picked up at least an hour before the performance to avoid disappointment. Visitors in search of more alternative theatre should look to Teatro a l’Avogaria, Corte Zappa, Dorsoduro (tel: (041) 520 6130), the 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 groundbreaking 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 (see above) but otherwise dance performances in Venice are thin on the ground.

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, the adaptation of Henry James’ Wings of the Dove (1997). The final scenes of The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) were filmed aboard the Croatian cruise liner, the MV Dalmacija, in the Venetian lagoon. 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 and European independents to arthouse (especially on Wednesday and Thursday). More recently, however, it has been overtaken in the popularity stakes by the brand-new Giorgione Movie D’Essai, Cannaregio 4612, Rio Tera de Franceschi – a two-screen miniplex holding over 300 seats and showing films in the English language every Thursday.

Cultural Events: Two cultural names dominate the Venetian calendar – the Biennale and the Venice Film Festival. The Venice Film Festival was originally founded by Mussolini in 1932, as a reflection of Italy’s increasing global importance and despite the low-key influence of Italian cinema, the event 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 10 days. All the action is centred on the Lido where the paparazzi rub shoulders with directors and starlets in pursuit of the Leone d’Oro – the festival’s highest accolade. Films are shown in the Palazzo del Cinema, Lungomare G Marconi, and the Astra, Via Corfu, although tickets are only available by queuing at the door. A programme of events should be available in advance at the tourist office. The Biennale (website: www.labiennale.org) is a forum for contemporary art, frequented by the enfant 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 at the many events they organise throughout the year.

Literary Notes: Venetian-born novelists are an obscure bunch, although many other writers, such as Henry James, have used the city as a backdrop for their novels. William Shakespeare set Othello and Merchant of Venice here, while Thomas Mann’s masterpiece, Death in Venice (1912), is one of the most resonant portrayals of 19th-century Venice, set in a particularly insalubrious Lido. Jan Morris brings her richly woven prose and evocative descriptions of the Divine Republic in her Venice (1974). 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. More recent works include Margaret F Macdonald’s Palaces in the Night (2001), a look at the artist Whistler’s time in Venice, and David Rosand’s Myths of Venice – The Figuration of a State (2001). Mary Laven’s Virgins of Venice (2002) is a fascinating insight into life in a Venetian convent in the Renaissance era.