Opera in Venice

La Fenice

Tomorrow is our first full day in Venice and we shall celebrate it with a visit to the Teatro La Fenice to see Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème”.

I have come to Venice to do research for future volumes of Dracula Chronicles and I know I owe my readers an explanation: what in the world does Venice have to do with Prince Vlad, a.k.a. Dracula?

It turns out that Vlad’s world and that of the 15th century Venice are tightly interconnected. But I shall cover that connection in a separate post. For now, I’d like to share with you my joy and anticipation at finding myself in arguably one of the most famous opera houses in the world. If you happen to like Verdi’s Rigoletto and La Traviata, this is the theater in which they were premiered (1851 and 1853). La Fenice also played host to Emperor Napoleon in 1808. Our box seats happen to be only a few meters away from his imperial box.

As you might suspect, the great man will not be attending tomorrow.