Wrecking the Opera House (1)

Lou Bondì's article (May 8) was a perfect example of second-rate, patronising contributions occasionally written by columnists who, conditioned by the readiness with which their scribbles are accepted by newspapers, grow too big for their shoes and fall into the habit of talking down to people.

The very title Rocking The Opera House set the scene for the mindless self-indulgent flippancy that was to follow. Beginning with a pseudo-witty title and then interspersing references to his pop music tastes (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jackson Brown etc), Mr Bondì tried to inject the common touch and make those whose taste differed from his appear as snobbish and old-fashioned.

Readers are not the least bit interested in the irrelevance of Mr Bondi's packing his bags in breathless anticipation of flying off to Rome to a Jack Browne gig. If he enjoys Jackson Browne, who is not necessarily everybody's cup of tea, that is fine.

But he went too far with the inverted snobbery of disparaging remarks about opera lovers paying to hear an "Italian has-been tenor sing Verdi". Incidentally, one might "hear" the likes of Led Zeppelin et al but intelligent music lovers prefer to "listen" to music and opera lovers "see" operas as well as listening. But then Mr Bondì can be forgiven because he was too busy packing for his exciting Rome trip to make such simple distinctions.

Having padded out his piece with pop music trivia, the raison d'etre of his article was nothing more than a hurriedly recycled version of Peter Fenech's misguided declarations. Mr Bondì's opinion article has, therefore, not added one single substantive point to support Mr Fenech's views and it would be a waste of time to repeat all the counter-arguments that have already been published in this newspaper. He can read these for himself.

Mr Bondì repeats Mr Fenech's incorrect assumption that a concert hall or "opera house" if you like, is suitable only for the performance of opera - to what he derisively refers to as a "gaggle" of opera lovers. Though he may be unaware of it, beside opera, there also exist orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, ballet, stage plays and a host of other serious and popular forms of entertainment. Put all together, these categories are enough to fill more than one concert hall.

Mr Bondì should not under-estimate the intelligence of readers or, for that matter, the number of opera lovers as Mr Fenech did. If a "reality check" is needed, the pertinent reality check on the loss of €90,000 on two opera performances would be to carefully examine what was done wrong - and not to put the blame on what Mr Bondì arrogantly refers to as "tiresome men and women still sipping their tea in a musty Valletta piano nobile (sic) circa 1950" for not attending. If Gozo opera can draw the crowds, then so can the Manoel - or a new opera house - but only with good management.