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Venice’s La Fenice theater drops incoming music director after months of protests
Musicians and staff had opposed her appointment, saying it lacked transparency and experience, and a strike canceled one performance.
- On Sunday, the Fenice opera house in Venice terminated its collaboration with incoming music director Beatrice Venezi, citing General manager Nicola Colabianchi's concerns about "repeated and serious public statements that were offensive and harmful" to the theater and its orchestra.
- Musicians, singers, and backstage workers had vociferously opposed the appointment, citing insufficient transparency and necessary experience, with escalating protests including strikes and marches through Venice reflecting concerns of political interference in artistic decisions.
- The audience and orchestra erupted in applause during a Sunday performance upon hearing the news, while general manager Nicola Colabianchi had initially defended the appointment in September 2025, arguing her youth and dynamism would attract younger audiences.
- Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said he hoped the cancellation would "clear misunderstandings, tensions and manipulations" surrounding the selection, while Venezi has served as an adviser to the minister since Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni took power in 2022.
- Before the Fenice controversy, Venezi served as principal conductor of the Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti Young and guest conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana, having conducted internationally in Armenia, Uruguay, and Argentina.
28 Articles
28 Articles
Associated Press News
Venice’s La Fenice theater drops incoming music director after months of protests
Venice’s La Fenice opera house is cutting ties with incoming music director Beatrice Venezi. Venezi was due to take up the role this coming October.
Beatrice Venezi is no longer the conductor of the La Fenice theatre. In the afternoon of yesterday, the same Fondazione Teatro La Fenice, through Superintendent Nicola Colabianchi, made it known that in a note he had decided to cancel all future collaborations with the teacher Beatrice Venezi. A serious decision, continues the statement, "matured also following the repeated and serious public statements of the master, offensive and detrimental t…
Beatrice Venezi will no longer have any assignment to the Phoenix of Venice. After months of controversy and protests, the Foundation communicated the decision to cancel all the...
The planned new music director Beatrice Venezi will not manage Venice's largest and most famous opera house after all. Before that there had been protest actions.
The statements of Beatrice Venezi, who denounced nepotism in an interview in Buenos Aires, were considered “serious and offensive”
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