Teatro La Fenice, Venice

La Fenice in Venice, seen from the stage in 2018: pale-blue and gold tiers, a painted ceiling and the royal box at the back of the empty stalls. This is the view a singer gets, and it is closer and more intimate than the house's fame suggests. It opened on May 16, 1792, and lived up to its name, the Phoenix, more than once. Verdi premiered Rigoletto and La traviata here. After an arson fire destroyed it on January 29, 1996, Venice rebuilt it as it was, where it was, and it reopened with a concert on December 14, 2003. Every gilded curl in this photo is a reconstruction of the 19th-century room.