Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice (Orchestra & Choir)

Founded: Venice, Italy

Orchestra

The history of La Fenice Orchestra is associated with that of the theatre, which held such an important place in opera in the19^th century, with premières including Semiramide, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Rigoletto, and La traviata. The second half of the century brought an internationalisation of repertory, broadened also by symphony concerts and collaboration with leading soloists (among them Enrico Mainardi, Mstislav Rostropovich, Edwin Fischer, Aldo Ferraresi, Arthur Rubinstein). In the course of the 19^th and 20^th centuries the orchestra was directed by leading conductors and composers, including Lorenzo Perosi, Giuseppe Martucci, Antonio Guarnieri, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Pietro Mascagni, Giorgio Ghedini, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Goffredo Petrassi, Alfredo Casella, Gian-Francesco Malipiero, Willy Ferrero, Leopold Stokowski, Fritz Reiner, Vittorio Gui, Tullio Serafin, Giuseppe Del Campo, Nino Sanzogno, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Carlo Zecchi, John Barbirolli, Herbert Albert, Bruno Walter, Franco Ferrara, Guido Cantelli, Thomas Schippers, and Dimitri Mitropoulos.

In 1938 La Fenice became an autonomous entity and the orchestra was developed further with active participation in the Festival of Contemporary Music of the Biennale. In the 1940's and 1950's under the guidance of Toscanini, Scherchen, Bernstein, and Celibidache (with a complete cycle of L.v. Beethoven symphonies), Franz Konwitschny (with R. Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen), and Igor Stravinsky, the orchestra presented a series of historic concerts. In the following years the most distinguished conductors worked with the orchestra, among them Bruno Maderna, Vladimir Delman, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Georges Prêtre, Eliahu Inbal, Seiji Ozawa, and Lorin Maazel. Contemporary operas in the 1950's included Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw and Igor Stravinsky's The Rake’s Progress, and in more recent years the first Italian production of Aus Deutschland and the world premières of Mauricio Kagel's Entführung im Konzertsaal, Adriano Guarnieri’s Medea, Luca Mosca’s Signor Goldoni, and Claudio Ambrosini’s Il killer di parole. In concerts the orchestra has undertaken cycles, including those dedicated to Alban Berg and to Gustav Mahler, under the direction of conductors such as Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kakhidze, Kurt Masur, Rudolf Barshai, Jeffrey Tate, Ahronovitch, Dmitri Kitaenko, Inbal, and Temirkanov.

The orchestra tours regularly in Italy and abroad. Principal conductors have included Eliahu Inbal, Vjekoslav Sutej, Isaac Karabtchevsky and Marcello Viotti; and among guest conductors Jeffrey Tate. Most significant concerts: J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium BWV 248 with Riccardo Chailly, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with Bruno Bartoletti, Bruno Maderna's Requiem with Andrea Molino.

Choir

It is a stable ensemble whose members are selected through international competitions. In addition to its commitment to the theatre’s opera programming (on and off-site), the Chorus has progressively added a growing presence in the sacred, symphonic and chamber music repertoire. Today, it is also a mainstay in Fenice’s symphonic programming and performs concerts in Italy and abroad both with the Fenice Orchestra and in autonomous formations or with other orchestral ensembles. In the post-war period, Sante Zanon, Corrado Mirandola, Aldo Danieli, Ferruccio Lozer, Marco Ghiglione, Vittorio Sicuri, Giulio Bertola, Giovanni Andreoli, Guillaume Tourniaire, Piero Monti, Emanuela Di Pietro, and Claudio Marino Moretti have taken care of the daily preparation. Currently, the Chorus Master is Alfonso Caiani. Conductors with whom the Choir has collaborated in recent times include Claudio Abbado, Ahronovitch, Arena, Bertini, Campori, Campori, Myung-Whun Chung, Clemencic, Ottavio Dantone, Ferro, Fournier, John Eliot Gardiner, Gavazzeni, Gelmetti, Horvat, Inbal, Kakhidze, Dmitri Kitaenko, Lorin Maazel, Neville Marriner, Melles, Riccardo Muti, Oren, Pesko, Georges Prêtre, Santi, Semkov, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Jeffrey Tate, Temirkanov, Thielemann.

The repertoire ranges from the 16^th to the 21^st century. Recordings include Il barbiere di Siviglia with Claudio Abbado and Massenet’s Thaïs with Marcello Viotti. Significant engagements in recent years include J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium BWV 248 and Mass in B minor BWV 232 with Riccardo Chailly and Stefano Montanari, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with Bruno Bartoletti, Verdi’s Requiem Mass with Myung-Whun Chung, Luigi Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 and Giuseppe Sinopoli's Lou Salomé with Lothar Zagrosek, Gluck’s Alceste with Guillaume Tourniaire, two monographic concerts dedicated to Arvo Pärt and to Charles Ives, Cage and Feldman with Claudio Marino Moretti, the world premieres of Bruno Maderna's Requiem, Claudio Ambrosini’s Killer of Words with Andrea Molino, Filippo Perocco's Aquagranda and Giorgio Battistelli’s Baruffe. In 2018, the Chorus opened the concert season of the Berlin Konzerthaus by performing, together with the Konzerthausorchester and conducted by Juraj Valčuha, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.

Choir Master: Alfonso Caiani
Assistant Choir Master: Chiara Casarotto
Repetiteurs: Raffaele Centurioni, Roberta Ferrari, Roberta Paroletti, Maria Cristina Vavolo

Sources:
Teatro La Fenice Website
Bits & pieces from other sources
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (August 2026)

Isaac Karabtchevsky: Short Biography | Ensembles: Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice
Bach Discography: Recordings of Vocal Works

Links to other Sites

Teatro La Fenice Coro e Orchestra (Official Website)