Venice's La Fenice opera house cancels opening night due to strike

La Fenice reimbursements to disappointed ticket-holders would amount to around 200,000 euros ($210,840). Next year Ortombina will move to La Scala in Milan, taking over as artistic director from Frenchman Dominique Meyer.

Venice's famed La Fenice opera house cancelled its opening night on Wednesday for the first time in more than 30 years due to a strike by staff, forcing the theatre to reimburse disappointed ticket holders from Italy and abroad.

Built in 1792, La Fenice is a Venice landmark drawing more than 200,000 visitors per year and one of Italy's best known theatres globally along with Milan's La Scala and Naples' San Carlo. It was due to open its 2024-25 season on Wednesday with Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Otello", directed by South Korean Myung-Whun Chung. The show was scrapped after a walkout by the orchestra and choir, along with other workers.

Some 80% of the theatre's 275 employees joined the strike, demanding an increase in staffing levels. "This theatre is our home. We demand that the number of jobs be increased to 315 as promised by the culture ministry before the COVID-19 pandemic," said Laura Coppola, a CGIL union representative at the opera house.

Wednesday's walkout was the latest episode in a long-running dispute between La Fenice's management and staff, who had already held strikes in August and September this year. La Fenice posted an announcement on its website to let people know the opening night had been called off, but it came too late for some opera lovers who had made long trips.

"We greeted people who came from Denver to Venice to see the show and had no idea it had been cancelled," the theatre's artistic director Fortunato Ortombina told Reuters. La Fenice reimbursements to disappointed ticket-holders would amount to around 200,000 euros ($210,840).

Next year Ortombina will move to La Scala in Milan, taking over as artistic director from Frenchman Dominique Meyer. ($1 = 0.9486 euros) (editing by Gavin Jones and)

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