Music in Venice?

A few days from now Babba Natale will arrive laden with videos, hand-held electronic gadgets, gameboys (or its newer equivalent timewaster), mobile phones, Blue Tooth attachments, etc. But also with a starter oil paint set in case there's a budding Tiziano out there or maybe a junior sized violin or organ for the next Vivaldi or Monteverdi. I truly hope so, this city could use some good music.

This was the city of Vivaldi, Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Galuppi, Albinoni, and lots more. But you'd never know that from the music you hear in Venice. Every (and I mean every) restaurant, bar, shopping centre, glass shop, coffee bar, many hotel lobbies, and most public areas play a horrendous rock music (know as musica italiana) which often incorporates features of hip-hop and crap-rap. It is sad. One oasis of civility is a bar on the Strada Nova near Ca D'oro where the proprietor plays opera, bravo! That's the only one I know. 

In addition, the Fenice opera house, recently rebuilt after the fire, is mostly dark. And when it is lit, oh-oh. Since opera in Italy is government supported, i.e., no private sponsorship, the quality and frequency of operas is generally low. The Fenice appears to me the worst managed of the historic opera houses in Italy. Unions control things here, and, at a performance of Parsifal two years ago, as the lights dimmed we were expecting an overture; instead, we got a speech of 20 minutes (in 3 languages) from the musicians union's representative about the responsibility of the government to provide more funding...for the musicians. When the opera finally commenced, we were shown a completely empty stage: no sets, no nothing except the principle singers. For some unfathomable reason, the dancers/chorous were completely nude, covered in white makeup, but hiding nothing. Opera glasses quickly came out. We left during the beginning of Act II, went to a local bar which played junk music, and we lamented what they had done to Wagner.