Venetian Macau Changes It’s Tune

The Venetian Macau has changed it’s tune as of around Spring 2011. I don’t mean this in a symbolic sense, it’s literal. And maybe I’m the only one who has noticed or cares – it’s quite possible.

When I first started working at the Venetian Macau in April of 2011, all the background music piped through the hallways and upper shopping canals was Vivaldi. I’m pretty sure it was all Vivaldi all the time; specifically the Four Seasons. At the time I commented how much I loved it. The recordings were great with fine string performances. A friend said “Just wait, after six months you’ll be sick of it and never want to hear it again.” But I didn’t find that was true. I loved the music when I first heard it and still loved it three years later.

Now I know the Venetian has opened the Four Seasons addition and maybe someone in marketing thought, “Hey, we shouldn’t play the Four Seasons music at the Venetian when we have the Four Seasons right next door”. Maybe they’re still playing the Four Seasons over AT the Four Seasons – not sure.

In any case, I noticed a few months ago that they started playing other classical music. It sounded like Italian early music to me but I’m not certain. But it definitely was not the long standing repetitions of Vivaldi. Then I thought I noticed it change from Italian early composers to other Renaissance type music.

But the bombshell was a few days ago when I walked into the Venetian to report from work and heard: JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto Number Three. Aha! The music has definitely changed. To me it was the official signal that our Vivaldi obsession has been given in to larger forces.

I don’t mind it – it’s a nice change. I am a JS Bach fanatic so no complaints from me. But I was a little sad that the Vivaldi days are a thing of the past. Someone in marketing will probably eventually run across this blog post and think it’s very funny that anyone even noticed. And do mainland Chinese know the difference between Vivaldi and JS Bach? I don’t know enough in that area to comment.

Long Live Venetian.