On January 29, in a dreadful fire, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice was fully destroyed. The Callas' painting, which was stored in one of La Fenice repositories, was reduced to ashes too.
In the first days of March 1996, Roberto Delpiano - who was already working with Bruno Tosi for exhibition panels for both Callas and the Barber of Seville exhibit materials - discussed with Tosi the possibility of replacing the destroyed painting with a new work of art.
And it was thought to add the image of the fire at La Fenice, to represent the fire that always had burned inside Maria Callas, and that had made her the greatest and inimitable soprano of all times.
