For seven months, musicians and employees of the world-famous La Fenice opera house in Venice protested against the appointment of Beatrice Venezi as music director. On Sunday they got their wish: the Teatro La Fenice foundation announced that it would cancel “any future collaboration” with Venezi.
When the news broke on Sunday, the audience and orchestra in the opera house erupted into loud applause applause. The regular opera audience had supported the musicians for months in their opposition to Venezi’s appointment, which had been pushed through without consultation with the orchestra.
Statements in the Argentine press about nepotism in the orchestra sealed Venezi’s fate. In a recent interview with the Argentinian newspaper La Nacion the conductor acted as if the resistance to her arrival had to do with resistance to change. Moreover, she spoke condescendingly about the orchestra. “I don’t come from a family of musicians,” Venezi had said. “And in this orchestra the positions are virtually passed from father to son.”
The selection of the musicians is based on a music competition. “In fact, Venezi called the evaluating committee corrupt,” says Marco Trentin, cellist in the opera orchestra, on the phone from Venice.
Right political color
Venezi was appointed musical director in September last year, a political appointment. The Italian conductor has the right political color given the current radical right-wing government in Italy. Venezi’s father was a leader of the neo-fascist party Forza Nuova, and Beatrice Venezi herself is close to Fratelli d’Italia, the radical right party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The Italian government is convinced that there is a ‘left-wing cultural hegemony’ in Italy, and is determined to break it through political appointments in TV and elsewhere in the media, but also in the film industry or classical music. Previous governments did no differently. However, Prime Minister Meloni and her party often say that Italy must change into a ‘meritocracy’, where a candidate is given a position based on her own merits, and not because she has the right contacts.
The resistance of professional musicians to Venezi’s appointment was labeled by right-wing media in Italy as sexism against a young woman with right-wing political leanings. But according to cellist Marco Trentin, the orchestra had purely artistic objections: “At the age of thirty-six, Venezi is no longer very young. If you want to conduct La Fenice, you must have already conducted major orchestras such as La Scala in Milan or the Berliner Philharmoniker. Venezi simply did not have the right experience.”
Venezi was appointed in September 2025 by Nicola Colabianchi, artistic director at La Fenice. She would officially start her job in October. The orchestra works with guest conductors, and the position of musical director had not been filled for more than ten years. This is an even broader role than that of chief conductor: it is also a managerial position, in addition to the artistic direction of the opera house. The three hundred employees of La Fenice felt that Venezi was not ready for such a large commission, and received the support of other major Italian opera houses.
It is not yet clear who will succeed Venezi. The opera house staff is unhappy with the way artistic director Colabianchi has handled the matter and is also demanding his resignation.
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