Rebuilding the Opera House site (2)

Thirty-five years ago we were filming a documentary to be shown on MTV (as it was then known) on the 50th anniversary of the June 7, 1919 uprising. We were shooting the façade of Palazzo Ferreria (Francia building) from the top of the ruins of the Opera House.

Just as we were about to start shooting, a tourist with camera in hand, thinking that we were filming the ruins, asked us, "Is this Roman or Greek?" He was clearly disappointed when we told him that it was neither but only the ruins of the old Opera House. But I have often wondered would he have been so disappointed had he asked the question say in 2042, 100 years after the theatre's destruction?

As someone who has experienced those traumatic years of World War II in Malta I cannot but agree with Mr Raphael Dingli, who wrote from Canberra (The Sunday Times, October 31): "Whatever happens, you must seriously consider keeping the ruin as it exists today with something smaller and low in the middle of it. This would remind future generations of the heavy air raids that Malta suffered during the war and would be a much more powerful symbol than any monument."

By all means let us utilise the space and in so doing be creative and practical. However, whatever we decide to do with the site (I am against the Parliament building proposal), let us retain the existing structure and construct below ground level.

We could have, I suppose, a concert hall or a theatre museum or both or even have the present War Museum in Fort St Elmo moved to the new building. Let us have something worthy of the capital city but which will at the same time be a constant, living reminder of our "heroism and devotion", a lasting monument which will no doubt be another attraction to locals as well as tourists.