Lou Bondi
Rocking the opera house
I always wanted to see Paul McCartney in concert before he keeled over. Seeing him in Malta was not an option. The euros simply did not add up: his fee would be too high for a sane local promoter to risk bringing him over. So I went to see him at the O2 in London. Following the first bars of Hey Jude, I could have died a happy man.
Faced with a parallel situation, a gaggle of vociferous Maltese opera fans are calling for a different route to satisfy their musical tastes. They expect, nay, demand, that they hear their music at whatever cost. As long as that cost is borne by others.
Let's cut to the chase. Opera productions in Malta lose oodles of money.
The last edition of the BOV Opera Festival ended up with €90,000 in the red. There is another equally perturbing reality check. Opera goers in our midst number no more than 700 and even they are not showing up in droves.
Opera appears to be more sustainable in the two Gozitan theatres, owned by different band clubs. But there is a reason. They rely heavily on their members' voluntary work. Once this support thins out, as it is bound to in this day and age, Gozitan opera productions will become a thing of the past.
Rather than be humbled by this bleak scenario, Maltese opera goers have decided to be belligerent. As tens of thousands of taxpayer euros burn between one aria and another, they issued two decrees. Taxpayers should subsidise their musical tastes even more. And, even more brazenly, taxpayers should buy them a rather expensive toy, a new opera house.
What these decrees amount to is simple: the hoovering up of vast amounts of taxpayers' money to subsidise the musical tastes of 700 people. This is nothing less than extortion masquerading as cultural enlightenment. Taxpayers who are uninterested in opera have no divine obligation to fund the tastes of 700 people. If opera is not financially feasible in Malta, take a plane.
I can already hear the protests of those who still argue that public funds should be used to support "high" culture while "low"culture, like rock music, is best left to the vagaries of the plebeian market. To these tiresome men and women still sipping their tea in a musty Valletta piano nobile circa 1950, I suggest that they look north. They will see Queen Elisabeth II celebrating her jubilee with a rock concert on her palace grounds, the Queen of Sweden awarding the Polar Music Prize - music's equivalent of the Nobel Prize - to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and the University of Liverpool offering an entire degree in the study of Beatles music.
This is not a diatribe against opera or its fans. It is a call for a sense of perspective amidst the irrational shrillness of the opera brigade's coda. Certain niche art forms, including opera, do deserve some sort of public support. But this should be granted only after certain questions are prudently and unequivocally answered. What exactly is the capital and recurrent expenditure presently being demanded by opera fans as of right? Is the amount socially just, given that the maximum number of beneficiaries is 700 people? If it is allotted, will equity with respect to other specialised art forms be honoured? Should opera lovers, like aficionados of other niche art forms, be expected to travel and pay their own way to enjoy their music?
Now I'm off to pack my bags to go to Rome for a Jackson Browne concert, two hours of Californian soft rock at its dark best. Can you imagine me expecting opera lovers to pay for me to hear him sing "Take it easy" under a pale Roman moon? Of course not. So why should I pay for them to hear a has-been Italian tenor sing Verdi? And to pay for the theatre he sings in to boot.
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Mario Vella
May 22nd 2009, 00:16
Lou Bondi like many others needs to learn that riches, or profit or call it what you may does not necessarily boil down to a balance sheet. We've become a nation of numbers. Numbers numbers........ It's utterly disgusting how much stupidity is allowed to thrive in the name of democaracy and pluralism. Bring on elitism, for that's what this country needs culturally.
Anthony Girard
May 9th 2009, 16:42
I smell a conspiracy here !
We have had too many "commentators" come out against having an Opera House since the PM let it be known that there was a "movement" for having Parliament housed at the old Opera House site.
Time will tell.
Lorenzo Vella
May 9th 2009, 12:54
Well said Lou! Very rational and solid arguments!
SANDRO ZERAFA
May 9th 2009, 02:31
It is very sad that we have to listen again to this stale argument about lucrative/non-lucrative art. Without art subsidies, many art forms wouldn't survive. And such subsidies are an investment in our country's education and are necessary for a healthy cultural scene. Lou Bondi's argument also indirectly condemns contemporary art, the majority of jazz, contemporary classical music, anything with a modernist sensibility - none of these are profit-making. Cut funding for these art-forms and you'll be happy to see Malta degenerate into a cultural wasteland and an Ibiza-like haven for superficial entertainment (and I am sure many would like to see it transformed that way). And cultural hierarchies here are beyond the point - this is not a war between the "erudite" and the "plebeian", between the "elite" and the "lowbrow" - we don't need the Queen's approval for us to know that Led Zeppelin are great, as much as we don't need a majority vote to approve Vaughan Williams or Coltrane or Picasso as great art. Mr.Lou Bondi, art is not about class, statistics and money-making.
laurence schembri
May 8th 2009, 19:06
In otherwords this is a subtle way of backing your friend Lawrence, to get on with it and use the site for Parliament Building. Surprised that no one managed to read the true meaning of your piece. Funny how mistaken one can be, I always felt that culture oozed out of you.
Lou Bondi
May 8th 2009, 18:53
I welcome all comments and try to learn even from the most negative ones. However, when I come across ones like Dr Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci's, the temptation is to plug one's nose and turn away. He thinks that a silly superiority complex and name-calling are substitutes for arguments. How sad.
Christopher Ripard
May 8th 2009, 15:06
Well said and nicely put, Lou. I have absolutely nothing against opera myself, nor jazz, nor hip-hop, nor trance etc. etc. but I don't see why I should support any or all these genres. By the same token, I do not ask anyone to revive 70s rock - my preferred form of musical entertainment. Let opera - and anything else - compete on equal terms!
Dr Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci
May 8th 2009, 14:59
At long last, Lou! Your real character has come through. Your love of pop and rock music is only superficial as all other things. If one really loves music he can find it in Verdi, Shostakovitch......and the Rolling Stones. It is a matter of talent and love. Your letter is just another reflection of the poor situation Malta is in. I just pity you.
A. Charles
May 8th 2009, 14:02
I totaly agree with Lou Bondi. I attend concerts at the Manoel and I feel disgusted that many times the theatre is only half full. I just wonder what the attendance would be if we have a big opera house or as it is fashionly called - multicultural building. @Ramon Cassar, will you be so kind to make an academic distinction between opera productions and opera house?
Franco Farrugia
May 8th 2009, 12:59
Bondi: 'So why should I pay for them to hear a has-been Italian tenor sing Verdi? And to pay for the theatre he sings in to boot.' I humbly suggest that Mr Bondi' does not show off his lack of proper cultural finesse too much.
Vincent Buttigieg
May 8th 2009, 11:50
So now it is known for a STATISTICAL FACT that opera followers in Malta (and Gozo!) amount to 700; no more no less! Can now anyone please come up with the exact figure of ostrich heads in this beloved land of ours?
J.Tonna
May 8th 2009, 11:42
I am an opera lover myself, however being realistic I know that to build a Opera House you need millions and in order to keep it running you need more millions. Does Malta afford these millions?
Ray Mangion
May 8th 2009, 11:22
This is a person who has an affectation of "pulling a few strings" (pardon the pun) and rather badly. He does not know whether he wants to be an entertainer or a journalist. Taking Peter Fenech`s figure 700 opera goes, which incidentally is totally incorrect ,is rather a lazy way of putting his point forward. Why are we grudging using taxpayer`s money for the Opera House? Isn`t the Manoel and the MCC a cancer for the taxpayer too if that`s the case? Isn`t the Eurovision Song for Europe? Where does one stop? It has nothing to do with taxpayers money. It is all to do with the management of these venues. If the right team of people were appointed to build and run the Opera House, it will look after itself. Enjoy your trip to Rome!
Anthony Farrugia
May 8th 2009, 10:54
I may not always agree with what Lou Bondi writes in the papers or says during his TV appearances; I also am not a fan of his Larry King style braces but this opinion piece about opera productions in Malta and the new Opera House is the most balanced and sanest piece I have read about this subject. So called opera lovers did a no-show at the recent BOV sponsored opera festival, ergo - as legal beagles say - a whopping Euro90K loss!.If they really love opera, they should put their money where their mouth is. They should also stop insisting as a God given right that the new opera hose should be an exact replica of the one designed by Barry which is out of sync with rest of Valletta's architecture and had bad acoustics.
Carmel Gatt
May 8th 2009, 10:47
After reading Mr Bondi's article I felt that I have now, completely and irrevocably, lost every shred of faith in the human race.
Ramon Casha
May 8th 2009, 10:34
Lou Bondi, like many others, needs to learn the difference between opera productions and an opera house.