How to finance a new opera house (1)

The city of Toronto finally has its opera house: The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. This modern jewel of a building is sufficiently restrained in its design so as not to outshine the Victorian beauty of our Courts of Appeal, located just across the street. Built in just three years, on land donated by the government of Ontario, this project had a modest capital campaign of C$150 million (Lm45.3 million), achieved through fundraising events by the opera company, small, private donations, and leadership donations from the federal government, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and the Fraser Elliott Foundation. Sizeable donations were rewarded with naming rights to the facility and its recital hall, even the boxes within the auditorium. Other donations were "in-kind", such as the supply, by one corporate donor, of eco-friendly material for doors within the new building.

Is such a project beyond the reach of Malta and the Maltese? Much has been written, and much has been said by successive governments, about that sad, derelict parking lot that once was an architectural jewel at the entrance to Valletta. That so much time has elapsed since its destruction is shameful. Equally shameful is the "band aid" solution recently announced by the government.

The problem with the Royal Opera House is not financial. The government was prepared to spend Lm16 million to relocate Parliament to this site, more than double the C$25 million (Lm7.6 million) that the Canadian government contributed to Toronto's opera house. Undoubtedly the various design competitions and studies from 1953 to 2004 have cost the Maltese dearly. Another Lm300,000 was spent on plans in the past eight years, yet it is still the same shabby bomb-site it was when I was born. The sad truth is that no Maltese government has ever had the derring-do to make a decision, once and for all, on the design and use of this prime space.

As a frequent visitor to Malta, who makes it a rule to bring at least two or more first-time visitors with me, I have grown accustomed to rushing my guests past the site just as quickly as I can. Bad enough that, on occasion, we may have no choice but to enter Valletta through Bergonzo's horrific, urine-drenched gateway; but you try to explain to a non-Maltese how it could possibly be that after 64 years we remain unable, or unwilling, to cure this gaping wound. One shocked visitor asked me whether it has been intentionally preserved, as some kind of War Memorial. "Perhaps," I replied ruefully, at a loss for words.

Imagine what a deserving, non-profit cultural undertaking could do with the site of the Royal Opera House. Surely Maltese companies, citizens and emigrants would gladly donate money to correct this festering eyesore, in exchange for a tax receipt or naming rights. Alternatively, auction the land off to a visionary entrepreneur who wishes to develop the site, but also agrees to abide by strict design and use guidelines, and re-landscape and maintain Freedom Square.