Restored Opera House is still an option

As for the double site of the destroyed Opera House or Theatre Royal (Teatru Rjal) and of the vast space mistakenly integrated in the project of a new box-like City Gate (Porta Reale, Putirjal), in my view a restored Opera House would still be the best option. If in 1945 this restoration of such as majestic and meaningful building had been undertaken, we wouldn't now be in a quandary, caused by the theatre built in the early 1980s at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.

The prestige gained by the city of Valletta, and by Malta, would be well worth the risk of an expensive project of restoring the pre-war opera house. Almost any building would fill this too-long derelict site to some advantage.

I have received a beautiful e-mail listing most world-wide known opera houses: London's Covent Garden, Milan's La Scala, Vienna's Burgtheater, Tunis's opera house built by the French, Buenos Aires's, and last but not least Dresden's Oper or opera house restored to its former grandeur by the DDR's communist regime, and Venice's gutted La Fenice completely restored. Opera houses lend prestige and grandeur to a city and a country.

The opera house in Tunis lends prestige to this city as can be admired by all visitors to this interesting place.

While Renzo Piano is a most valid and inventive architect, Malta has a designer of "classical" buildings including neo-baroque, who can spot architectural flaws from miles away. This is Innocent Centurino, who is known to possess a thorough knowledge of correct styles and details of building and architecture. Why don't the authorities hear his opinion, and appreciate his expertise? He is an asset of which few countries can boast.

I feel that a new Parliament building on the ruined site would be flawed from the start, with the possibility of large political demonstrations putting this hazardous project at risk.

A second use can be found for the theatre at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. And an old, traditional, restored use can be found for our national Opera House. Footing the bill is a problem that can be solved here in Malta, as in so many opera houses on the continents of Europe, Africa and of the Americas.