The Italian-born conductor Beatrice Venezi was first approved by the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, to assume the role of music director of Italy’s Teatro di La Fenice in September 2025.
Venezi’s tenure has now been confirmed by the company, where she will serve as Music Director from October 2026 through March 2030.
Born in 1990, Venezi graduated in Piano in 2010 at the Conservatory of Siena and made her symphonic debut in 2012, writes Warner Classics. She has led orchestras including the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, Orchestra della Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste, Orchestra della Magna Grecia, Orchestra Filarmonica Campana, National Philharmonic Orchestra Odessa, and more.
“I believe one of the most important tasks of a good conductor, like any other leader, is to understand the people you’re working with and get the very best from each one of them by working towards a shared objective — in our case, a concert,” Venezi said in a 2021 interview.
“[The future of music] won’t be the streaming we’ve seen in recent months. Theatre allows you to suspend your disbelief, streaming doesn’t,” she added. “However, I feel the need to create hybrid languages, and I see a great future in that.”
In 2025, the announcement of Venezi’s appointment drew criticism from musicians of the Teatro di La Fenice orchestra, who had requested the immediate removal of Venezi and took action to strike, leading to the cancellation of their 2024/25 closing night concert
Some artists have asserted that their opposition stems from Venezi’s “extreme right-wing and nationalist political ideas” and public friendship with the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni.
The musicians of La Fenice said that their resistance to Venezi is entirely merit-based, saying that they learned of the appointment exclusively from the press and that “Venezi has never conducted in major international opera houses [and is] is inadequate; she guarantees neither quality nor international prestige.”
“I firmly believe this appointment can bring benefits,” the theater’s Superintendent Nicola Colabianchi said at the time. “[Venezi] has directed dozens of operas, has a solid resume, and strong communication skills. We need innovation, new faces, and those who know how to explain opera to young people.”
In response to the theatre’s confirmation of Venezi’s tenure, a board member of the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice, Alessandro Tortato, has resigned from his position, which he began in January 2025.
“Still in defiance of the statute, the Board of Directors has been asked to rule again on the appointment of Beatrice Venezi as the theater’s music director. At this point, it’s clear that the matter has become purely political and, consequently, there’s no need for a musician on the board. Therefore, I’m walking away,” Tortato wrote in a statement.
“[Venezi’s appointment] … is legitimate, the Statute, the fundamental law of the Theater, states so,” he added. “One can disagree, protest, or speak of a broken procedure, but the appointment is legitimate. It is equally illegitimate, or at least not correct, for Colabianchi to let it be known that the appointment was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors, something that never happened.
“I take the opportunity to clarify that the counselor doesn’t receive even a single euro: it’s a completely honorary charge,” he explained. “And it was truly a great honor for me to cover it, albeit for a short time and albeit during one of the most difficult times this remarkable theatre has experienced in its long and glorious history. But such is life…Viva la Fenice! Viva Venezia!”