Spotlight on 'forgotten' Maltese composers

The BoV Opera Festival 2006, which kicks off tomorrow, may serve to highlight and revive Maltese composers who are little known in Malta and whose operatic works are no longer heard.

A Concert of Arias from Maltese Operas, which is being held on Saturday at the auditorium of the Convent of the Sacred Heart in St Julians, will feature works by Paolino Vassallo and Carmelo Pace, coinciding with the 150th and 100th anniversary respectively of their deaths, as well as Nicolò Isouard and Charles Camilleri, who enjoys an international career to date, and Anton Nani.

The works of Mro Isouard may never have been heard in Malta, while those of Mro Pace were last heard in the 1980s, said National Orchestra general manager Chris Muscat, who is conducting the concert.

He is hoping that it could rekindle interest in these forgotten composers. Some had quite an impact overseas in their time, but are little known in Malta, he said.

It is likely that Mro Isouard, for example, left for France with the French, and there is no doubt that he was one of the top two composers in Paris at the time, his rival being Boieldieu.

"There was harsh competition between the two for a certain posting, which was eventually given to Boieldieu, but Mro Isouard was so esteemed that his bust still adorns the Opera de Paris, together with those of other composers."

A possible reason why his works seem to have fallen along the wayside and were never revived is that most of his music remained in Paris. The National Orchestra does play an overture of his now and again, but entire operas are very rare, partly due to the difficulty of getting hold of the scores from libraries in Paris, Mro Muscat said.

Mro Vassallo, on the other hand, always kept a low profile, plus there was a period after his death when his music was being moved around and some of it even got lost. It was eventually left in the hands of Fr Albert Borg, who did a great job in getting it together, cataloguing and archiving it, Mro Muscat said.

"If Fr Borg had not taken the interest, it would have been lost forever," he continued.

Sadly, Mro Vassallo is today associated mainly with names of streets or squares and a school. But few are aware that he studied in France and spent 10 years as leader of the orchestra and then conductor of the Opéra Comique, which is one of the most prestigious in Paris.

Undocumented stories about Mro Vassallo say that he studied under composers of a high calibre in Paris. He is also said to have won an important award for his talent, but was asked to change his citizenship in return. Mro Vassallo refused and the prize went to none other than Debussey, who was in the same class.

"Today, Debussy is known worldwide, but no one knows about Paolino Vassallo," Mro Muscat said.

It seems the conductor had every intention to return to France because he had bought a return ticket. But when he met his wife, he decided to remain in Malta. Had he gone back, it was likely that he would have had an international career, and if he continued to occupy the important post of conductor of the Opéra Comique, it is assumed that he would have made a bigger name for himself.

"What is for sure is that he would have had a bigger platform. In Malta, the most they could offer was to make him maestro di cappella at the cathedral, where the insular mentality of the times may have held him back and not allowed him to be as adventurous."

It is ironic how Mro Vassallo's students are remembered more than the teacher himself, but the upcoming concert could help to change that, Mro Muscat maintained.

A number of difficulties are faced in putting together an operatic concert of the sort, Mro Muscat explained. "It is almost like a 'premier' - a modern premier, so to speak. If Mro Vassallo's work was played for the first time in the Royal Opera House in Valletta around 100 years ago, we have no record of how the composer wanted it and so we are recreating his intentions through our own interpretation."