Opera Tickets Italy

When Salvatore Sciarrino wrote the 15th opera of his illustrious career, Venere e Adone, it marked a return to the Italian composer's fascination with mythology, a subject matter he had previously explored in Amore e Psiche and Perseo e Andromeda, among other works. The Staatsoper in Hamburg, Germany, commissioned Sciarrino to write a new opera and he turned to Giovan Battista Marino's 1623 poem, L'Adone, for inspiration. This poem concerns the myth of Adonis and Venus, dramatically portraying the pair as somewhat self-interested characters. Sciarrino worked on the libretto with his collaborator, Fabio Casadei Turroni, in 2020 and the new opera subsequently premiered in Hamburg on 28 May 2023 with its Italian premiere following at Venice's Gran Teatro La Fenice on 26 June 2026.

A Baroque poet, Marino's retelling of the Venus and Adonis story focused on the shortcomings of the goddess and the mortal. Simply put, neither is portrayed in a particularly good light while Marino provides much more of a sympathetic telling of Il Mostro's story, the so-called monster – sometimes referred to as the boar – who falls into conflict with Adonis. Sciarrino's opera uses this conceit to great effect, demanding that audiences consider more closely what it is to be heroic or even a deity when so much human frailty is on display. In the end, the big themes Sciarrino explores are those of death and love. The composer cleverly sets these themes up against one another, almost as if they are rivals.

Sciarrino was born in 1947 in Palermo, Sicily. He was, more or less, self-taught as a composer but his talent soon shone through, and he was building a reputation for himself by the age of 15. What's more, there is a unique musical style to all of Sciarrino's past works, whether they've been focused on mythic themes or not. Venere e Adone is no exception, and this style is on show from the very beginning of the opera. The score commences with a single note, played on a clarinet, with an almost ghost-like quality that sets the scene. The sonic world he subsequently generates from the orchestra is similarly haunting, one that provides the vocal performers with a chance to sing into what is portrayed as a somewhat desolate space.

Venere e Adone at Venice's Fenice Opera House provides a great chance to witness top-quality, near contemporary opera with a mythical story that still speaks volumes to modern theatregoers.