La Traviata | Musica a Palazzo | Opera in Venice

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PreviousAugust 2024
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The mise en scène of La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi has strong links with Venice: it was first performed at the Gran Teatro La Fenice on March 6th 1853. Musica a Palazzo adheres to the “indications for contemporaneity” requested by Verdi for the first performance (which caused a scandal due to its brazen realism).
The first act begins in the Portego (central hall) and the spectators will realise with amazement that they are actually playing the role of the Violetta’s guests (Traviata): she drinks a toast with them and among these she will meet Alfredo.
The second act is staged in the Sala Tiepolo, the beauty and privacy are the perfect setting in which to appreciate the subtlety of the character’s “inner speech” and to be moved by her vicissitudes.
The drama of Violetta’s illness and death takes place in the bedroom with an alcove where not even the extraordinary beauty of the 18th-century stuccoes are able to distract the spectator from the emotional intensity of the song: the voices of the performers that are so intimately close, will tug at your heart strings.

Program and cast

Photo gallery

Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto

The Palazzo Barbarigo Minotto (also called Palazzo Minotto Barbarigo) is a 15th-century palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, northern Italy, next to the much larger Palazzo Corner.[1] Built in the Venetian Gothic style, it was originally two palaces, Palazzo Barbarigo and Palazzo Minotto, later joined together. The Barbarigo palace was owned by the Barbarigo family for several centuries and was the birthplace of Gregorio Barbarigo, who once refused the Papal Crown.[2] It was later owned by the Minotto and Martinengo families.
The facade of Palazzo Barbarigo-Minotto on the Grand Canal of Venice.

Three staterooms face the Grand Canal and another three face Rio Zaguri. In the first half of the 18th century frescoes and paintings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Francesco Fontebasso and Carpoforo Tencalla were commissioned by Pietro Barbarigo. Its chapel has Louis XIV Style elm flooring inlaid with olive-root marquetry. The palace's doors, are in the same style, banded in walnut with bronze handles shaped as vine leaves. The floors of the staterooms are a blend of terrazzo paving and Venetian "pastellone" paving.
The palace is actually formed by two different buildings, merged in the 17th century. The ancient part, a 1400s Venetian-Gothic architecture featuring 12th century Byzantine friezes, was originally known as Palazzo Minotto; the newer part, Palazzo Barbarigo, was built in the 17th century.

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