Staff at Venice’s La Fenice opera house have voted to strike over the appointment of a conductor with ties to Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government.
The strike will be held on Friday 17 October, the date of the opera house’s first performance of a run of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, which will close its 2024-25 season.
The theatre’s musicians and staff have for months called for Beatrice Venezi’s appointment as music director to be revoked, claiming she does not have enough experience for the high-profile role and was picked only because of her government connections.
Venezi, 35, whose father is a former member of the neofascist Forza Nuova party, was appointed as a music adviser at the culture ministry shortly after Meloni came to power three years ago and has been praised by the Italian prime minister on several occasions, also receiving an award from her far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
Venezi has conducted orchestras across Europe and beyond. However, critics of her recruitment argue she lacks the calibre expected for such a post, noting that she has never directed at La Fenice – except for a brief promotional event – nor at any major international opera house.
The orchestra’s musicians last week issued an open letter to the venue’s general manager, Nicola Colabianchi, denouncing the lack of transparency in the selection process and questioning Venezi’s qualifications for a role at such an esteemed institution.
The letter published in the Italian press added that “her name has not appeared on the billboards of the most important festivals on the world music scene”.
Venezi, who will start her four-year term in 2026, has so far not commented on the row. She has been defended by the Italian culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, who said La Fenice’s first female musical director would not make Venetians miss her predecessors. “I like to call things by their name and people by their qualifications. Beatrice Venezi is an excellent artist and conductor,” Giuli said.
Colabianchi said Venezi had been hired because “she is a very good conductor, and because she is a woman and already respected internationally at only 35”.
In announcing its strike on Wednesday, the Teatro La Fenice union “reiterated its request to revoke Venezi’s appointment as music director, as resolved by the last general assembly”, following the state of unrest declared on 27 September.
“The mayor proposed starting a process of exploratory discussions with the new director designate, while confirming her appointment. The union representatives and the trade unions have declared their willingness to undertake this process only following the preventive revocation of the music director’s appointment,” the statement said.
Venezi has previously drawn controversy and was targeted last year by protesters shouting “No fascists at the opera” before conducting a New Year’s Day concert in the southern French city of Nice.
She has never hidden her conservative values but said in an interview with HuffPost Italia in 2023 that she was “not a fascist” and only came under attack because of her father’s political history.
