Chapters 1-2 Summary

Death at La Fenice chronicles Commissario Guido Brunetti's investigation of the death by cyanide poisoning of renowned German conductor Maestro Helmut Wellauer, in the middle of a performance of La Traviata at the Venice opera house, La Fenice. Brunetti learns that Wellauer is a scoundrel. Worst, Brunetti learns that Wellauer was a pedophile, raping young girls of 12 or 13. Brunetti realizes Wellauer's wife poisoned him because he raped her daughter by a previous marriage, not killing him but causing him to go deaf. Wellauer took the cyanide himself, after realizing his hearing loss was permanent and severe, and Brunetti helps the widow cover up her misdeeds for the sake of her daughter.

As the novel begins in Chapter 1, the intermission is over at the Venice opera house Teatro La Fenice, and the audience members take their seats. However, the conductor does not...