Dovster

The UIG is not only beautiful.

She is very well educated (she can insult me fluently in Italian, Hebrew, English, French, and to a restricted degree in Spanish, Bulgarian, and Latin.)

She is wealthy (she commutes between her homes in Milan and Tel Aviv and has a vacation villa in Switzerland).

The only thing that lets me know that I am greatly superior to her is her crackpot politics (slightly to the left of Joseph Stalin).

I, on the other hand, am an intelligent moderate (slightly to the right of Benito Mussolini).

stimpy

I will definitely be there if my schedule allows. But I rarely know my schedule more than two weeks in advance. Hopefully it will work out as I would love to visit Venice again.

monitor

As some may know, the famous Teatro la Fenice in Venice which was destroyed by arsonists seven years ago, has finally been reconstructed and is reopening this year.

November 18-20 are dates on which the opera La Traviata, which was specially written by Verdi to be performed at la Fenice, is scheduled.

Franny and I are planning to try to attend the matinee on Saturday the 20th, a time when there are no specific plans yet drawn for other Events, but if there are no tickets available for that performance, we will try to get some for Friday evening at 7PM.

I intend to start looking for these tickets ASAP and would be pleased to include in the search any other FTers who might like to attend. A caveat is that the seats are very expensive by any standards, ranging (I think) from about E80 to maybe as much as E300.

If you are interested, send a PM indicating your desired maximum cash exposure along with an indication that if the matinee is not available, whether you also would be interested in going on Friday.

KathyWdrf

Speaking of La Fenice, I have ALWAYS wanted to see the interior of that place, and, ideally, see and hear a musical performance there. Unfortunately, events such as the disastrous fire alluded to above have prevented me from doing so. (La Fenice has burned down and been rebuilt several times in its history, IIRC; its very name -- "The Phoenix" -- alludes to that fact.)

Since I am not yet committed to attending the Do, I really can't commit to buying La Traviata tix at this point. Do they have any kind of "last minute" and/or standing-room-only tix the way some opera houses do?

Or, do they give tours of the interior at all?

Thanks!

monitor

I don't really know whether I can get any tickets in advance at all but in the event that none are available, I will do what I need to do in order to get into the place as the date comes nearer. Frequently, the ticket situation loosens up a day or two before the performances. I will also inquire about standing room.

I would also expect that there will be tours of the interior available for a fee. This now appears to be SOP everywhere and here, where they actually have something to show, it is a probable.

obscure2k

Monitor this is great news! I would love to see La Traviata at Fenice. If enough folks are interested, I can e-mail Marco Musco at Ai Mori. If anyone can score tix he can. He knows everyone in Venice. I just have to roughly know how many tix we are looking for.

monitor

I guess then that we should set a time limit of maybe a week or so for people to declare.

Therefore, anybody who would like to attend if tickets are available must declare in a PM as requested in #78 titled Bulletin on or before August 10 so that Marco Musco can have a firm number to work with before the end of August when all of the locals will again be paying attention.

This is not intended to shut out those whose plans to attend are still unconfirmed, but merely to get a jump for those who know they are going to be there. My experience has been that when the date grows nearer, those with contacts find quite a number of tickets that were previously spoken for coming out of the woodwork. If the source can get us the tix we need in August, he almost certainly will have some access in November.

Dovster

La Traviata -- at La Fenice, the theater where it was first performed! This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone, even those who think they would hate opera.

But I am not going to go.

My reason is unique but it might show you why a non-opera lover should consider shelling out the big bucks for a ticket.

I enjoy opera. I have seen them in New York, in Tel Aviv, and even the Holy of Holies -- La Scala in Milan.

But I have only seen La Traviata once, and will never go again.

When my daughter, Lital, was in her early teens, I took her to see La Traviata in the open air arena in Verona. We went with the UIG and the UIG's daughter.

Needless to say, Lital was not thrilled with the idea. She foresaw herself being subjected to hours of sitting on uncomfortable stone, listening to fat ladies sing in Italian to tunes that are even older than the 40's stuff that her father likes so well.

She agreed to go, in fact, only because we were going to stay in a hotel on the shores of Lake Garda.

Before the opera began, the UIG told Lital the story. From time to time during the show, she would whisper to her so Lital would know where in the libretto they were. As the opera ended, my tough little Sabra daughter was in tears -- and a convert to opera.

Nothing could ever compare to that night for me -- and I vowed not to go to another performance of La Traviata and risk having those memories diluted.

Send in the clowns and I will be there. If Figaro gets married, I want to attend. When the barber in Seville gives haircuts, I will be in his shop. And when Don Jose goes after Carmen, I will be on his side -- no matter how much bull the toreador pitches.

But for me, La Traviata can never be "the lost one" again. Not only did I find her in Verona, but she helped my daughter find the wonder of opera.

obscure2k

Dovster Your story brought tears to my eyes.
Cough! Cough!
Yours,
Violetta

Punki

Ok, I need to get serious about finding airline tickets. What would work the best here. I have to fly UA and, naturally, would like to get a decent price and routing. I am thinking that the best price over water would be Seattle to London, Paris or Frankfurt. It usually works out best to switch to one of the cheap European airlines for the short little hop on the continent. Anybody know who goes into Venice and from where?

monitor

I know that easyJet goes to MarcoPolo from LGW and this far in advance you can probably get on for 20-30GBP RT.
Ryanair goes to Treviso (not so good) from Stanstead and Luton (also not very good) and this could be less than 10GBP RT.
The rest I'm not sure of altho SNBrussels goes at E99 each way and about the same price is available on AirFrance from CDG.

Dovster

Punki, go to http://www.veniceairport.it/servizi....ieAeree&lan=en This will bring you to a list of all airlines which fly into VCE. You can click on any and find what its schedules are.

It is my belief that FCO, MXP, CDG, and FRA have the most daily flights into the city but you might well find something that suits you better.

All my own flights have been TLV-MXP with a several night layover in both directions at UIG.

Punki

What are FCO and MXP? Probably airports not serviced by UA or I guess I would know them. When we went to Basel, we were able to save over $2,000.00 by switching from UA to BA at LHR. It was worth the small trouble of having to recheck our luggage (we had to drage along a lot of ski gear) at LHR on our return. UA was able to check it all the way through on the outbound.

This upcoming Venice trip will be easier because we won't have to check luggage, unless the Eruopean carrier requires us to do so. You know, of course, that we crazy Americans drag along those huge, oversized roll-ons.

I will do some searching for options tonight after work.

kluau88

FCO = Rome
MXP = Milan

Dovster

Of course, there is another way to fly into Rome. You can go to ATH and then get on a plane to RHO (the Greek island of Rhodes).

As is well known, all Rhodes leads to Rome.