Mario Messinis on La Fenice's Post-Fire Rebirth

Mario Messinis (1932-2020), the historic music critic for Il Gazzettino and later superintendent of La Fenice, described the theater's exceptional programming in the early 1980s. He emphasized that La Fenice prioritized the project over the finished product, avoiding discographic fetishism. Instead, it offered a kaleidoscopic succession of festivals over two years, creating a musical archipelago where spectators could find their own itineraries. The museum remained in the background while 'cognitive' wanderings emerged, with a stage embodying the temptations of the imagination in an essentially experimental proposal. This vision was articulated during the emergency years after the January 29, 1996 fire, when the theater operated from a tent on Tronchetto.