US EditionVenice’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.
36 Articles
36 Articles
After seven months of a stunning cacophony, the prestigious Venetian institution finally closed its doors to the musical director whom she had appointed. A stage release with the tunes of Berezina for the one who dreamed of being a great reformer of the Italian operaIn September 2025, Superintendent Nicola Colabianchi announced the arrival of Beatrice Venezi at the console of the Fenice, causing the immediate release of musicians who denounced h…
The conductor Beatrice Venei, close to the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was removed from the famous theatre La Fenice on Monday 27 April, after several months of tension. Daughter of a former activist of the neo-fascist party Forza Nuova, she was thanked by the direction of the theatre after months of turmoil and a recent statement on a presumed nepotism within the orchestra.
The famous La Fenice opera house in Venice does not want 36-year-old conductor Beatrice Venezi, who is supported by the prime minister, to become its new music director.
The orchestra at the world-famous Venetian opera house La Fenice has got its way: Beatrice Venezi (36), a conductor close to the radical right-wing Italian government, is no longer musical director. Statements about nepotism in the orchestra sealed her fate.
The new music director of La Fenice Opera House has been fired before she even took up the position she was chosen for. Beatrice Venezi said the Opera employs people based on nepotism, saying that "jobs are passed down from fathers to sons, so to speak."
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