The most famous opera house in Venice is named La Fenice, ‘the phoenix’, because it has risen from the ashes so many times (its most recent reincarnation was designed by Aldo Rossi, after an arson attack in 1996). Few of them survive today − fire is their mortal enemy, since their wooden interiors were kept ablaze with artificial light during performances. In those years the watery city overbrimmed with theatres and opera houses, both private and public. The first public opera house, Teatro San Cassiano, opened its doors to a paying audience in Venice in 1637, with an auditorium based on a theatre by Palladio that had previously stood on the site. But these palace theatres were often used for a variety of entertainments, so they can hardly be considered opera houses proper. The first operas were staged in Florentine palaces at the end of the 16th century to celebrate occasions of state: along with the expense of producing them, this aristocratic pedigree sets the medium apart from others with more popular origins. They are often built by the biggest names, cost far more than other buildings (and require perpetual subsidies once completed), and can take a decade to construct −so where did this herd of white elephants come from? Although few people ever set foot in an opera house, they are central presences in our cities, and − in Europe, at least − they make heavy demands on our public resources. It’s remarkable that long after the medium’s 19th-century heyday, and despite its minimal relevance to the populace at large, opera houses are once more considered the ultimate prestige projects. There are examples by César Pelli in Miami, Daniel Libeskind in Dublin, Norman Foster in Dallas (and another in Astana), Paul Andreu in Beijing and Shanghai, Zaha Hadid in Guangzhou, and Valencia has a Santiago Calatrava-designed building that looks like the severed head of a Power Ranger. Despite relatively small audiences (only two per cent of Americans went to the opera in 2008, and even Italian audiences are dwindling), the first decade of the millennium saw the completion of at least 20 opera houses all over the world.
Since its birth in the Renaissance, opera has been claimed as a reincarnation of community-forming Greek drama, while being used to represent the power of the state − whether feudal, dictatorial or democraticĬontrary to all expectations, the fat lady has not yet sung for opera.
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