In Greek mythology, the phoenix has long been a symbol of immortality and spiritual rebirth. This legendary bird, larger than an eagle and with feathers of brilliant gold and reddish purple, is said to have lived for exactly 500 years. When each lifecycle came to an end, the fabled bird burned itself on a funeral pyre. As it did, another phoenix rose from the fire. Reborn from its own ashes, the phoenix flew up toward the sun - a fiery symbol of renewed youth and beauty.

Like the sun that burns itself out at the end of each day and is reborn the following morning, the phoenix is reborn again and again. So too is La Fenice (fehn-EE-tchay), "The Phoenix," one of Italy’s most famous opera houses. On May 17, 1792, Teatro La Fenice opened in Venice. Like the phoenix for which it is named, it was consumed by fire in 1836 and then rebuilt.

In this beautiful Venetian opera house, many grand operas were given their first breath of life. Over the past century, the same dozen or 15 operas have been performed thousands of times to audiences that number in the millions at La Fenice and numerous other opera houses around the globe.

How is it that operas written in the 18th and 19th centuries continue to appeal to audiences in the 21st century? Opera lovers feel it is because audiences still relate to the strong emotions in the words and music of these grand operas, emotions so real as to be almost unbearable. In Verdi’s "La Traviata," how can we not be moved when Violetta sings "Addio del Passato" "So Closes My Sad Story sensing that it is too late to harbor hopes of seeing her lover, Alfredo, again?

I still remember leafing through Henry Simon’s "A Treasury of Grand Opera" in my parents’ home library as a child. It was an oversized book of opera librettos contained in a slipcover bookcase. On the cover were watercolor sketches of the characters alive within the grand book’s treasury of pages - Don Giovanni from Mozart’s 1787 opera of the same name; Lohengrin and Elsa of Brabant from Wagner’s 1850 opera, "Lohengrin"; and the ill-fated lovers, Violetta and Alfredo from Verdi’s "La Traviata," which premiered in 1853 at La Fenice.

In 1988, Kit and I had front row seats at the Sydney Opera House when "La Bohème" came to Australia. It seemed only fitting that our first experience at the opera should be in this beautiful structure that sits like a white diamond in the crown of Sydney’s spectacular harbor. At sunrise, its cool facets turn into wings the color of golden light streaked a reddish purple. It is Sydney’s phoenix rising from the harbor toward the sun.

Several years later, we attended a performance of Verdi’s "Rigaletto" at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. You haven’t really experienced opera until you’ve heard it with an audience of aficionados raised on opera. We left New York knowing we had had a singular operatic experience that would be hard to top back on the farm.

In 1996, The New Yorker magazine told the story of La Fenice in a collection of small artist sketches. No words on the page identified the opera house. The artist apparently felt that the magazine’s readership required no introduction to Venice’s landmark in the world of opera.

Across the top right-hand corner of the artist’s rendering, reddish purple flames rolled menacingly like an approaching storm. The artist was depicting the fact that on Jan. 29, 1996, La Fenice had once again burned down. The famous opera house was undergoing renovations and had planned to reopen on March 6, 1996, to commemorate the 143rd anniversary of the premiere performance of Verdi’s "La Traviata" at La Fenice. Tragically, the phoenix once again had turned to ashes.

Opera lovers the world over mourned the loss of one of Italy’s most treasured gems. At a Jesse Hall performance of "La Traviata," Mayor Darwin Hindman proclaimed Wednesday, March 6, 1996, La Fenice Day in the city of Columbia. Funds from the local performance, he told the audience, would assist in the rebuilding of the historic opera house.

Last week, Kit and I attended a world-class opera gala at the Missouri Theatre. The 9th Street Philharmonic Orchestra, Columbia Chorale and four soloists performed an exciting program of opera arias, choruses, triumphal marches and overtures under the direction of Alex Innecco. A week earlier, the theater anchored a phenomenally successful True/False documentary film festival.

A "Take Your Seat" campaign is now under way to renovate the landmark theater and create a Center for the Arts. Now is the time to sponsor the new theater seats so that the show will go on. Whether you are an opera lover, film buff or symphony and chorale supporter, here is an opportunity to ensure Columbia’s own aging phoenix rises again.

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