Joseph Muscat, Attard
Voices of the people on the Opera House (1)
Renzo Piano's design for the ruined Opera House in Valletta.
Renzo Piano has given the Prime Minister the Parliament building he wanted. He will, undoubtedly, provide a fitting entrance to Valletta worthy of its fortified-city status. He has spoken about gardens for the enjoyment of the people. But he is depriving lovers of culture and the arts of the theatre they have been hoping to get for over 60 years.
He has said that "we keep the soul of the Opera House... the only thing that this is not going to be is a building with a roof". No, Sig. Piano, the soul of the old Opera House will not rest in a building without a roof. A roofless building is just an open space with seats around it, an arena, a stadium, and we have enough of these to serve our purpose. We have even put a roof over the courtyard of the Knights Hall to obtain something resembling a theatre, though that could never quite fulfil the function of the Opera House.
It has become fashionable to treat the "ruins" of the Opera House as if they were the sacred remains of our glorious ancestors, and now they are to be incorporated into the new "theatre". They are nothing of the sort. They are just a shameful reminder of the inability, or unwillingness, of our governments to restore that which should rightfully belong to the Maltese people in general, and to Valletta in particular. If those stones have a place at all, it is in the sort of building to which they originally belonged. That is why they were preserved in the first place.
Facing a barrage of opposition when he said that Parliament would be built on the Opera House site, the Prime Minister said that nothing was cast in stone. Let us hope that this is still the case.
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Carmel Attard
Jul 12th 2009, 02:31
This Plan deserves My greatest support unlike the Non existant Gate. This is nothing new, we go to Balbek in Lebanon, the Colosseum in Rome, they all are alive and beautiful in their ruined state they command a harmony, not attained if they were rebuilt!!
Karen Zammit Manduca
Jun 30th 2009, 23:03
If nothing else, this design will be in keeping with all the rest of the building sites on the island! From the photo attached to this letter, it looks like a building site with a hoarding surrounding it (mind you - one that is well put up and not the type we are used to)!!!!
George Debono
Jun 30th 2009, 19:06
To Mr Montebello
@We have to see the viability of an Opera House in today's economic times. How many operas are produced every year?
Even if we built an opera house..................orchestral concerts, ballet, drama, musicals, stage plays etc etc would still be possible. The suggestion , if you didn't notice , is for a National Theatre - this would also be the home of our national orchestra. Opera would also be possible of course.
But it'stoo late npw, Parliament has taken up all the space...
G
N. Zammit
Jun 30th 2009, 18:01
With all due respect to local architects, don't you think that we need a change from building what local architects are experts at; replacing glorious buildings with concrete pigeon holes?
M. Zammit
Jun 30th 2009, 17:57
Erm, I must say I'm no opera singer so I cannot even start to comment on what the pros and cons of having a roofless opera house are so I'd like to hear those from the profession expressing an opinion instead of the general public if you please.
ray mangion
Jun 30th 2009, 16:09
I really don`t understand such enthusiasm and praise printed down in this paper. Some of them have been repeated, so far three times. I have made my own survey and I can assure you that the general consensus out of 150 people I asked, 82% are not at all happy with the design. The general comments were that it looks really nice as a model but it is not practical and most certainly does not compliment the rest of our baroque city. This is an obvious propoganda to get the doubtful believe that it is good. One huge mistake was made by demolishing the beautiful pre War City Gate, and now an even bigger one is going to destroy the image of our Heritage City. What is the point of printing stuff if there is an apparent politically motivated approach? This project should have been decided by the people of Malta and not by the Government heeding to advice from a foreign architect because he is world renowned. Local architects would have cost a lot less and probably produced better plans which would compliment our old city better
P. Montebello
Jun 30th 2009, 14:39
The Opera House: It seems to me that it is always"we have been waiting for so long......" meaning that most of these are living in nostalgia of times that have gone by when they used to go to the Opera House. We have to see the viability of an Opera House in today's economic times. How many operas are produced every year? What is the cost of each opera? I'm sure that the Gozitan Theatres can come up with an answer of the losses that they have incurred while producing the same 10-12 Italian popular Operas; albeit with sponsors. So to produce maybe another 1 or 2 loss making Operas, are we to built an Opera House at, I imagine, a huge cost? And what about maintenance? The wages of the people that have to be employed? What would be the entrance fees to each show to try and mitigate the losses?
I'm sorry but here we are in MALTA with a population of 400,000 not LONDON where they can afford to run more than 20 Theatres with daily shows.
Marvin Mizzi
Jun 30th 2009, 10:57
He will, undoubtedly, provide a fitting entrance to Valletta worthy of its fortified-city status. What entrance is there going to be an entrance or just a breech in the fortification. Hospitality is shown when you invite some one in I open the door to you but if there are do doors you can come in when ever you want even when not invite ..... this is what is being shown with the breech in the fortifications........... did we need to bring a foreigner just to have emptiness... so from the garage like entrance to the emptiness at least we had something ugly as it might have been but now we are not going to have nothing
J.Borg
Jun 30th 2009, 10:43
what about costs and maintanance and upkeeping......i haven't heard anyone yet about these
Galea. L
Jun 30th 2009, 10:09
"He will, undoubtedly, provide a fitting entrance to Valletta worthy of its fortified-city status."
With wide breaches in the walls?
Who needs a new Parliament building when it could be housed in Fort St Elmo?
Joseph Tanti
Jun 30th 2009, 09:31
I agree with Mr Muscat regarding his opinion about the roofless theatre. We Maltese have been waiting so long to re-construct an Opera House which can again revive the entrance of our City. To the majority of the people no one seem to have expressed the need of a Parliament House in the entrance of the City of Valletta. But, it is apparent that the present Government is more than happy that this has evolved and can attuate his ambitions. As to the matter of the Opera House, Mr Piano has cut it short and scribbled a cost effective design which it seemed that it was difficult for him to satisfy what the Maltese actually want........simply an Opera House with a roof of course!
Anthony Galea
Jun 30th 2009, 09:07
So at least there is somone else who is realising the concept of what has actually happend!
Yes the Prime Minister wanted a new parliament. He tried to hit two birds with one stone and build the parliamnet at the old opera site. The people where rightly against this. So what did Renzo Piano do? Give the Prime Minister the new parliament he wanted and since he had no budget for the opera house, he is just cleaning the area and give it a face lift. But let nobody tell us that we are having the opera house rebuilt!