Fosca (opera) Fosca (opera) Fosca is an opera seria in four acts by Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes to an Italian-language libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni based on 's 1869 novel "La festa delle Marie". The opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on February 16, 1873. It was a failure because of a dispute between lovers of bel canto and supporters of Wagnerian music-drama. Gomes revised it in 1877, and the premiere of the new version (this time described as a melodramma) on February 7, 1878, also at La Scala, was a success. Since then, performances of the opera, mostly in Brazil,
Opera house (with 2,200), the Royal Opera House in London (with 2,268) and the Vienna State Opera (the new auditorium with 2,280). Modern opera houses of the 20th century such as New York's Metropolitan Opera House (with 3,800) and the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco (with 3,146) are larger. Many operas are better suited to being presented in smaller theaters, such as Venice's La Fenice with about 1,000 seats. In a traditional opera house, the auditorium is U-shaped, with the length of the sides determining the audience capacity. Around this are tiers of balconies, and often, nearer to the stage,