Gillian Knows Best guide to Music in Venice
Gillian Knows Best guide to Music in Venice
Where to see an opera or listen to jazz on a boat
As the Biennale winds down maybe you are looking for something different to fill the hours you have been devoting to contemporary art. Here is a suggestion. Venice is filled with music. Full disclosure here, live music isn’t really my thing. Even though (maybe because?) Noah is a professional musician we rarely go to concerts. My house is filled with guitars and I am on Facebook marketplace every day searching for a piano that will fit into the space I have taped off for it in the guest room but somehow all of that doesn’t translate into going to see others perform. If seeing live music performed IS your thing here is my guide to where to hear opera, go on a jazz cruise and even buy a handcrafted instrument in Venice.
One of the greatest composers of Baroque music, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice. You can visit the church San Giovanni in Bragora where he was baptized in 1678.
There is a free museum of musical instruments, the Museo della Musica, in-between San Marco and the Accademia bridge.
I have already told you how much I love this campiello just off Campo Santo Stefano. Inside the Palazzo Pisani is the Conservatorio di Musica Benedetto Marcello di Venezia. If you walk by, stop for a minute to listen to the conservatory students practicing. They also have performances.
Classical music and opera in Venice
Built in 1792 Venice’s opera house Teatro la Fenice has burned down and been rebuilt twice, hence the name. It’s historic, Rossini and Verdi composed operas for the theatre. It’s beautiful, guilded stucco boxes and a giant glass chandelier hang from a frescoed ceiling. It has opera and ballet and orchestra performances. Every year we say we are going to the new years orchestra performance. If you can’t make a show you can take a tour of the theater.
The Venice Music project describes itself as a true Baroque concert experience. Just the performance space is pretty special. It is in the Scuola Grande dei Carmini where upstairs there is a ceiling full of Tiepolo’s. Sometimes concerts also have a scholarly talk before the music.
These greatest hits opera aria and chamber music performances with period costumes are touristy but just like I tell you to take a gondola and have a drink in Piazza San Marco you should do this too. Everyone I know who has gone loves the experience. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is a hit for a reason and Mozart was the Taylor Swift of his era.
I Musici Veneziani perform in the Scuola Grande of San Teodoro and Interpreti Veneziani perform at the Chiesa San Vidal and the Chiesa della Pietà. Perfomances are timed so you can have dinner either before or after.
Going to see an opera at Musica a Palazzo is fun. First, it is opera in a palazzo on the grand canal in Venice! Second you move from room to room for each act. And there is a break for prosecco. Really, what more could you ask for?
Orchestras in Piazza San Marco
You have probably seen the orchestras that play in Piazza San Marco on my Instagram. If they are playing on my walk home after a night out I always stop and listen. The piazza is already dazzling and theatrical. Musicians playing Gershwin or Ricchi e Poveri is an extra flourish. It is even better if you sit down and have a drink and listen for a good long time. I like all of the cafes that ring the piazza, each one has a different vibe, just pick the one that feels great to you. They are open and the orchestras play every night until midnight but know that in January and February before Carnevale the musicians are usually on a seasonal break)
Gran Caffè Chioggia (this cafe is around the corner but it does have a view of the Guidecca Canal and the San Marco gondola station)
Jazz in Venice
There are a number of clubs in Venice where you can listen to Jazz.
Veneto Jazz has good listings of performances in Venice and nearby.
Listen to the VJC quartet with a drink at the Venice Jazz Club, Tuesdays-Saturdays.
The restaurant Laguna Libre in Canareggio combines dinner and music with regular performances.
Have cichetti and a drink at the Rétro Wine Bar. There are no live performances here, but the playlist ranges from 1920s-1950s jazz.
Sara Longo is an America singer who performs regularly in Venice.
A word of advice the vibe at Bacaro Jazz near Rialto is less jazz bar more Bourbon Street.
Music on a boat
You know what I say. Everything is better on a boat! That goes for music too. Watch the sunset and a spritz on a 20 foot catamaran while listening to Bossanova and Jazz Standards with a live saxophone. Each tour in 90 minutes and their season runs from April 1-October 31, weather permitting.
Additional music resources in Venice
There are a number of luthiers in Venice. I recently went to a talk with Guido Capiano and look at this guitar made by Davide Pusiol.
Are a musician visiting Venice and need a practice room?
Piano lessons in French and Italian.
My wife and I spent the month of April in Venice. Had a great time. We went to Musica a Palazzo twice and LOVED both operas (Traviata and Barber of Seville). The palazzo is very unique & intimate! For example, the “orchestra” consists of three musicians! If you go though, read the instructions carefully & note that, like most places in Venice, the location isn’t the easiest to find 🙄☺️
I received this super useful comment from a reader:
The Museo della Musica is not free! it is 2 euros. But it is very much worth going. Insider tip is that if you buy concert tickets from the museo there is a good chance they will give a discount. Plus the museo sells a lot of cd's with music written by famous venetians through the centuries.
Another very important thing that I didn't see is the vivaldi church (Pieta) has a tour and it is very much worth checking out if
a fan of the baroque.
Also, sometimes the sunday morning service in San Marco has good church music.
Lastly, the dei Frari church has a whole chapel devoted to Monteverdi (plus it has regular church music concerts.)
Monteverdi was the founder of modern music. He was the first to put together
instruments playing together with singers. Without him there is no opera, no bach, no beatles and no taylor swift. He is WAY
more important than vivaldi (who i love and have listened to all of his concerts.) He famously became the music master of
San Marco when, during his job interview, he put singers on every single balcony of the church and had them sing this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJIwFO9A1f8
He was a master of theatricality and drama- the caravaggio of music.