December 8’th 2003 a “partial and anticipate” permit regarding the zones of the theatre where work had already been finished was given, allowing the festivities scheduled for the inauguration to take place.
December 14’Th of the very same year the tones of Beethoven’s’ Die Weihe des Hauses opened the reconstructed and re-found La Fenice. Riccardo Muti conducted the orchestra and the Choir of La Fenice in a theatre filled with spectators, counting several famous personalities, but foremost also the President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi accompanied by Misses Franca. The RAI (the Italian state television) transmitted the concert in live. From the moment when the first lowering of the tickets prizes for the evening with Riccardo Muti was made on the on-line sale at www.charta.it, more than half of the tickets were already sold. The names of 175 Venetians who were invited to bring a companion to one of the evenings of the opening week, had been kept aside in the Ca’ Farsetti for months. All the tickets were sold out long time before the event, also for the concert with Elton John, which was the only evening of pop music during the festivities for the re-opening of La Fenice. Sir John, alone on stage with his pianoforte, enchanted the audience and offered his act as a tribute the city of the lagoon and to its reborn theatre.
For the first time ever, on January 1’st 2004, RAI 1 transmitted the new year’s concert live from La Fenice instead of the traditional new year’s concert of Vienna. The Orchestra and the Choir of La Fenice were conducted by the maestro Lorin Maazel, featuring the music of Giuseppe Verdi, Amilcare Ponchielli and Gioachino Rossini.
La Fenice will definitively arise form its ashes with the staging of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata in November. At the moment the public will have to do with the guided tours of the theatre that start again this summer.
Ever since October 2003 great expectations in respect of the grand re-opening on December 14’Th could be noticed, as it was seen on the numerous cultural initiatives that occurred simultaneously. The Republic of San Marino launched a celebrative stamp in 250 copies for the “Inauguration of the Gran Teatro La Fenice” and the Institute Veneto of Sciences, Humanities and Arts organised a special exhibition for the re-opening of the theatre under the title “The splendour of ornaments and gilts. The return of La Fenice” in co-operation with the Foundation for the Gran Teatro La Fenice. The curator of the exhibition, the architect Elisabetta Fabbri, directing the reconstruction work followed the entire process at close hand. The result is an exhibition of the essential photos chosen from the rich documentation work that was done during the process, telling the story about how the theatre was has been reconstructed, piece-by-piece. The objective of the initiative was to document the various knowledge – history-philology, art, crafts and techniques- that has been used during the reconstruction processes of the scenographic and decorative equipment of the Venetian theatre. The reconstruction work on the decorations of the “house” (where the audience is seated) began in March 2003. It is based on the studies and work of Giuerrino Lovato, who from being an art-craftsman of carnival masks turned into the “re-inventor” of the decorations of La Fenice. In April of the same year the facade of the theatre had already re-appeared and the “halls of Apollo” were in their final phase of restoration. When the minister of infrastructure Pietro Lunardi visited the theatre in May, he and Paolo Costa, mayor of Venice and commissioner for reconstruction works, could be no other than satisfied with the working together of technicians and artists in the rebuilding of the theatre.
Also 2004 proves to be a year full of cultural initiatives taking place simultaneously with the re-opening of the theatre, as well inside as outside its walls. La Fenice in fact hosted both the 27’th national Congress of the National Association of Magistrates with the presence of President Ciampi and the "Venetian of the year" awards, on February 5’th and 18’th respectively, before definitively closing the doors in order for the last reconstruction work to take place. In March 2004 the 11’Th Restoration Fair took place at Ferrara with the presence of Costa, Peres and Corsini. The reconstruction of La Fenice, without any discussion, proved to be the main feature of the event presenting the travelling exhibition “The splendour of ornaments and gilts. The return of La Fenice” by the institute Veneto of Sciences, Humanities and Arts. At the Triennale di Milano the documentary “La Fenice - The rebirth” was presented. The film came into being as the fruit of a DAMS course (department of music and multimedia arts) at the University of Padova supervised by Alberto Zotti and Gian Piero Brunetta. It is directed by Antonio Andreatta and produced in co-operation with the Foundation for the Gran Teatro La Fenice of Venice. Apart from the actual filmmakers, all the protagonists of the reconstruction work participated in the film project, illustrating the restorative, architectonic, projective and decorative interventions that today form the new La Fenice.