The opening sequence brings all the characters on stage and sets up their stories of doom. Visconti films on location inside the city's La Fenice, that beloved music box of an opera house, destroyed by fire in 1836 and 1996, rebuilt both times. The tiers of boxes are unusual in that they rise straight up one above another, so the patrons are all fully on display. La Fenice is known for more intervals than most houses; in the winter opera season the regulars often know one another, and love to mingle and gossip. As they kept track of the comings and going in other boxes and followed each other's eyes, the theater must have worked in earlier centuries like Facebook.
It is 1866. Intrigue is afoot. The best orchestra seats up front are filled by officers of the occupying Austrian army, dressed in showy whites. In the galleries, patriots distribute leaflets, and these shower down upon the foreigners as, in Verdi's Il Trovatore, the hero cries "To arms! To arms!" The leaflets call for an end to the Austrian presence and the unification of Venice with Italy, then in the making by Garibaldi.
In the melee, sharp words are exchanged between an Austrian soldier and a young Venetian partisan. A duel is set for the following morning. This is observed from a box by Countess Livia Serpieri, whose wealthy husband is one of the aristocracy.
Австрийский солдат и молодой партизан-венецианец обмениваются резкими словами. На следующее утро назначена дуэль. Это увидела из ложи графиня Ливия Серпьери, супруга богатого аристократа.
