VENICE, Italy, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The famed Venice opera house Teatro La Fenice was alive with music again Sunday night, eight years after it was destroyed in an arson fire.
Maestro Riccardo Muti conducted works by Beethoven, Stravinsky and Wagner in the first concert of a week-long celebration that will include a performance by Elton John, the London Telegraph reported.
The new structure is a faithful copy of the ornate building once considered one of the world's greatest opera houses, including the frescoes, gilt and damask, the newspaper said.
The original auditorium, built in 1792, was torched by electrical workers trying to avoid being fined for failing to meet a deadline.
The reconstruction was delayed several years due to Italian bureaucracy and was finally funded by private donations, the Telegraph said.
