Teatro Malibran

Built upon the place where the well-known traveller Marco Polo's residence once stood, it was designed by Thomas Bezzi for the Grimani family. It became the biggest, most luxurious and extravagant stage in Venice, known for its sumptuous productions and high quality singers such as Margherita Durastanti, prima donna between 1709 and 1712. During its golden age, composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti whose opera seria, Mitridate Eupatore, was given its premiere performance on 5 January 1707 and Georg Friedrich Händel whose Agrippina premiered on 26 December 1709 were active at the theatre. Another composer's work which was presented was Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, as has been noted. During the 1730s, the San Giovanni Grisostomo began a slow and inexorable decline, although managing to keep its position at the head of Venetian theatres until the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1737, when Carlo Goldoni was placed in charge of the Venetian stage, prose works began to be performed (many of these his own comedies). Subsequently, because of its considerable size, the Grimani family decided to open a smaller theater in 1755, the San Benedetto. The opening of this new stage led to the end of the dominance of the San Giovanni, which saw a slow decrease in performance. Following the fall of the Republic of Venice and the French occupation, the theatre was among the few not to be closed. ==As the Teatro Malibran==

In 1819 it was sold to Gallo, who restored it in 1834; in 1837 he changed the name to Teatro Malibran, in honor of the famous singer Spanish mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran. In 1849 the return of the Austrians to Venice provoked the closure of all the major theatres of Venice as protest, but the Malibran was the exception. Gallo's son took over in 1852; it was auctioned in 1886 then radically redecorated in the Egyptian style; The Malibran became the temporary home to the Fenice orchestra and, after a decade of work, the 900-seat Malibran was re-opened on 23 May 2001 by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, with a gala concert which included excerpts of operas by Verdi (the centennial of his death), by Bellini (the centennial of his birth) and also work by Wagner. It continues to function as an alternative venue for productions from La Fenice as well as staging many of its own: :In 1991, together with the Fenice's dance company, Carolyn Carlson presented her first performance, Undici Onde, created specifically for the Fenice [...]The ample scenic space of the Malibran has also seen performances by Pina Bausch, some of which were Italian premieres. ==See also==