Teatro La Fenice ("The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres (to fire and legal problems respectively)…Since opening [1792] and being named La Fenice, it has twice burned and been rebuilt….it reopened on 14 December 2003 with an inaugural concert of Beethoven, Wagner, and Stravinsky. The first opera production was La traviata in November 2004.
From the amazon page: The City of Falling Angels
Berendt [tells] his own nonfiction exploration of the seamy side of Venice with an insider's hushed tones, chronicling the life and times of the city's movers and shakers like a naughty child sharing an overheard secret. Following up his similar study of Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt has cobbled together a series of entertaining tales of the legendary canal city, ranging from the squabbles of Venetian fund-raisers to the fire in the Venice Opera House [La Fenice]. Like a cocktail-party raconteur with a particularly juicy story to tell, Berendt twists his listeners' ears with his book's seamless string of Venice-themed misbehavior and decadence. Only occasionally overemoting, Berendt mostly maintains the proper tone of high-society gossip delivered succinctly. Berendt's intimate voice helps to tie together the disparate strands of his sometimes-sprawling book.
http://www.amazon.com/City-Falling-Angels-John-Berendt/dp/0143036939/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265585801&sr
The book does not disappoint. Of course you may learn more about the politics, the bartering arrangements and payback systems in the Venetian economy than you really wanted to know but they all tie into a Byzantine story of rebuilding an important historical theater. The personal biographies with all the quirks and foibles of Venetian aristocrats are mesmerizing. If you have ever been to Venice, if you enjoy reading about Venice, if you love opera, if you have see movies set in Venice you will want to read this behind-the-scenes book. Berendt has his only special talent for telling totally absurd stories and getting you to believe they are completely appropriate for the situation. Only Berendt does it better than anyone else.
Am seeking the following on Kindle, but alas not yet available in electronic form:
A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Their Remarkable Families by Michael Holroyd.
Holroyd's latest starts as a biography of Ellen Terry, one of the greatest actresses of the late 19th century—until it reaches the beginning of her professional and personal involvement with the even more legendary Henry Irving. The story circles back to recap Irving's life, then moves forward with their collaborations on Shakespeare plays and blood-and-thunder melodramas at London's Lyceum Theater as well as road shows in England and America.
Holroyd also delves into the lives of their children (from separate relationships), and it's Ellen's offspring, Edy and Gordon Craig, who dominate the second half of this hefty family history: Edy took up with a longtime companion who originally had a lesbian crush on Ellen and would later become involved with Vita Sackville-West; Gordon was a visionary set designer who treated the women in his life—including Isadora Duncan—abominably. There's even a place in the saga for George Bernard Shaw (the subject of Holroyd's three-volume biography), who conducted a passionate correspondence with Terry for years before they ever met. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312429495/ref=kinw_rke_rti_1
ELLEN TERRY came from a big old theatre family -- Gielgud is a member of it. Irving came from nothing. Together on the Lyceum stage, they played the commercial and classic successes of their time in expensive productions and to huge audiences. Whole trains were given over to them, their big companies, and the sets they traveled with when they toured. The English-speaking world was fascinated by them. Oscar Wilde wrote sonnets to Ellen Terry. Sargent painted her. Shaw sought to seduce her with his plays. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312429495/ref=kinw_rke_rti_1
Edward William Godwin (Bristol, 26 May 1833 – 6 October 1886) was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic "Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by The Stones of Venice, then moved on to provide designs in the "Anglo-Japanese taste" of the Aesthetic Movement and Whistler's circle in the 1870s.
Godwin was widowed in 1865; his affair with the renowned actress Ellen Terry between 1868 and 1874, incurred her retirement with him to Hertfordshire, and produced two children: Edith Craig and Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966), who became an important actor, designer, director, and theoretical writer of the early 20th century European stage. The affair inspired Godwin to spend much time designing theatrical costumes and scenery. After she returned to the theater and their connection cooled, Godwin married a young designer in his office, Beatrice/Beatrix Birnie Philip (1857–1896), who bore him a son. After Godwin's death, she and Whistler married, in 1888. Godwin was a frequent contributor to the periodical British Architect and published a number of books on architecture, costume and theatre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_William_Godwin
JAMES McNEIL WHISTLER [of “Whistler’s Mother” fame]
During the 1870s and much of the 1880s, he lived with his model-mistress Maud Franklin. Her ability to endure his long, repetitive sittings helped Whistler develop his portrait skills.[99] He not only made several excellent portraits of her but she was also a helpful stand-in for other sitters. In 1888, Whistler married Beatrix Godwin, the widow of the architect E. W. Godwin, who had designed Whistler's White House. The first five years of their marriage were very happy but her later life was a time of misery for the couple, due to her illness and eventual death from cancer. Near the end, she lay comatose much of the time, completely addicted to morphine given for pain relief. Her death was a strong blow Whistler never quite overcame. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Abbott_McNeill_Whistler
Maud Franklin (January 9, 1857 – ca. 1941) was an English artist and the mistress of artist James McNeill Whistler. After Whistler married Beatrice Godwin in 1888, Franklin moved to Paris. She married an American, Richard H.S. Abbott, and lived near Cannes until her death.
Now you see why I want to read the book. And in the course of late-nineteenth theatre enjoyment we have tickets next week for Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado.
http://www.durhamsavoyards.org/As you know the Town of Titipu is one of G&S's best loved operettas. One of my personal favorites is the aria sung by the Daughter-In-Law-Elect "The Sun and I." The lament is the regrets of a not-so-beautiful woman without husband or prospects whose idenity is dependent on a promise of status. It is one of those sad songs of what might have been much like Rogers & Hammerstein's song sung by Emile de Becque, the French plantation owner, "This Nearly Was Mine."
Tomorrow I need a Physical Therapy session with Noriko for my right rotator-cuff and aching elbow tendinitis. Not a moment too soon. I keep doing my weight resistance workout at the gym but the old right arm is getting difficult. So Sad when body parts begin to act up!
Tonight we celebrate Chinese New Year with dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Last night was Mardi Gras but we had dinner at home as usual, this week just has too many holidays for a mid-winter calendar. bb
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