Teatro La Fenice has burned twice and risen twice — first in 1836 after an empire-era blaze, then in 1996 when arson reduced Gian Antonio Selva's neoclassical interior to ash and twisted iron. The 2003 reconstruction replicated every gilded cherub and crimson velvet seat using eighteenth-century techniques, down to the horsehair plaster and hand-painted ceiling frescoes. The five-tier horseshoe auditorium now seats 1,076 beneath a central chandelier weighing nearly a tonne, its 383 bulbs illuminating the same sightlines Verdi surveyed during the 1853 premiere of La Traviata. Venice theatre tickets grant access to a working opera house where rehearsals occupy morning hours and productions fill the calendar from September through July. The self-guided route begins in the foyer's Apollonian hall, climbs through the royal box — once reserved for Habsburg governors — and circles the gallery where nineteenth-century merchants stood for three-hour performances. Architectural historians note the building's hybrid identity: Selva's 1792 facade borrows from Palladio's church fronts, while the backstage warren preserves medieval timber framing from the original Grimani family palace. A small museum off the second landing displays charred beams salvaged in 1996, alongside costume sketches from Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and Britten's The Turn of the Screw, both of which debuted here under the composer's baton. La Fenice anchors Venice's performing arts calendar beyond opera. The resident ensemble I Musici Veneziani performs Vivaldi's Four Seasons twice weekly in period costume, their gut-string violins filling the hall with the same resonance the composer heard during his tenure at the nearby Ospedale della Pietà. A separate baroque concert series occupies the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro, a fifteenth-century guildhall two minutes south along Calle del Frutaroł. Guided backstage tours — limited to twelve visitors per slot — access the prompter's box, the subterranean scene-storage vaults, and the original 1792 proscenium arch that survived both fires. The theatre remains dark Mondays during tech rehearsals, and production schedules occasionally close the auditorium to tourists, making advance booking essential during peak autumn and spring opera seasons. The Campo San Fantin entrance opens to a small square hemmed by the Chiesa di San Fantin and the Ateneo Veneto library, its quiet mornings offering rare breathing room in a city where pedestrian corridors rarely exceed two metres wide. The audio guide — included with standard admission — runs seventy minutes and covers construction history, the Rossini and Bellini premieres that established La Fenice's reputation, and the 1996 investigation that sent two electricians to prison for the arson. October through December tickets sell fastest, driven by the opera season's opening productions and the convergence of Biennale attendees seeking evening programming.