Opera needs mix of old and new

In their letter of May 7, Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci and Marjorie Trusted (The Manoel And The Evolution Of Art) seem to forget that my letter of April 29 was intended as a reply to Peter Fenech's complaint that there are not more than 700 opera lovers who go to the theatre in Malta, and that the poor audiences for the BOV Opera Festival last March provide clear evidence of this. What I wrote was that Maltese opera goers are most unlikely to be drawn to a festival offering an obscure opera by Ralph Vaughan Williams (he was no Benjamin Britten) and an even obscurer one by Darus Milhaud. I myself enjoyed watching both productions though I would be lying if I said that I waxed enthusiastic about them. The Magic Flute as theatre was less enjoyable, and I thank the god of opera for a truly comical and well-sung Papageno whom I still remember with much pleasure.

Surely what I was clearly saying was that if the Manoel and its sponsors want audiences to throng the auditorium as they generally throng the auditoria of the Astra and Aurora theatres in Victoria, their offerings should in part at least be alluring to the punters. Riders to the Sea, for instance, would have been much more acceptable in the company of a couple of operas by the composers Maltese people love: Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni, Massenet, Bizet, Rossini, and, yes, Mozart - but Mozart done really well, as he deserves. Malta is not a great cosmopolitan centre, it is not London, Paris, Vienna or New York, so you cannot give our opera lovers stuff most of them have not even heard of, let alone know something about.

This goes not just for 20th century composers but earlier ones as well such as once famous but now little known composers like Pacini and Mercadante, unless you entice them by accompanying these works with good productions of what they dearly love.

Unless the Manoel thinks in terms of this, then the theatre and its sponsors will be destined for fiascos similar to this year's. I know Brian Schembri was grievously disappointed by what happened this year, and I sympathise with him for I am sure he was trying to do something new, as he is always fond of doing, and I hope will have learned his hard lesson. I know he is honest and bright enough to try a much likelier formula for next year.

As for Karl Fiorini, I can assure the two correspondents that he has got off to a good start. Music lovers are getting to know him and to appreciate him, and at last year's Summer Festival I went to an open air concert of music by contemporary Maltese composers that produced a positive response in the audience.

It might, however, be a mistake at the moment to expect Manoel audiences to enjoy too much contemporary music on the same programme. Mixing the old and the new would be a much better idea until the young of today become the middle-aged of tomorrow.