City in northern Italy and capital of the Veneto region. An independent republic until 1797, Venice`s rich musical history is important for opera, church and instrumental music. S Cassiano, the first-ever theatre operated by an impresario for a paying public, was opened in about 1637; the Teatro S Giovanni Grisostomo, opened in 1678, catered largely to the tastes of visiting dignitaries. In the eighteenth century, the influential Goldonian comedy took centre stage and in no small part gave rise to the later eighteenth-century hegemony of opera buffa. S Giovanni Grisostomo was replaced as the city`s leading theatre by S Benedetto in 1768 and then by La Fenice, opened in 1792. The cathedral, S Marco, played the leading role in church music – especially, during the mid-1760s, under the direction of Baldassarre Galuppi – although parish churches, convents and monasteries also had active music establishments. Other performing institutions and individuals included clubs of tradesmen, the nobility, public and private theatres and, in particular, the ospedali which cared primarily for orphan girls and cultivated a culture of musical virtuosity. Four ospedali were active during Mozart`s time in Venice: the Incurabili, Mendicanti, Derelitti (or Ospedaletto) and Pietà; the Incurabili, however, went bankrupt in 1776 and the others followed immediately. Mozart was in Venice from 11 February-12 March 1771; he gave a public concert there on 5 March.
Lit.: Norwich, A History of Venice; Caffi, Storia della musica sacra nella già cappella ducale di S Marco dal 1318 al 1797; Arnold, `Orphans and Ladies: the Venetian Conservatoires (1690–1797)`; Passadore Cavallini, La musica nel Veneto dal 16. al 18. secolo; Gillio:,`La stagione d`oro degli Ospedali veneziani tra i dissesti del 1717 e 1777`; Bauman: `Musicians in the Marketplace: the Venetian Guild of Instrumentalists in the Later Eighteenth Century`; Mancini, Muraro and Povoledo, I teatri del Veneto; Eleanor Selfridge-Field and Luca Zoppelli, “Venice”, Oxford Music Online