Elitist approach to opera in Malta

I would have loved to attend the screening of La Traviata at Argotti Gardens (picture). However, I chose not to. Not because I didn't feel like paying a smacking entrance fee of €20 charged at the door but because I didn't want to succumb to what in my opinion was a brazen-faced initiative.

It was a summer event, the weather was amazing, the venue was one of the nicest public gardens in Malta and one of the main performers was our Maltese cultural ambassador Joseph Calleja not to mention that one of the participating dancers selected was also the Maltese Sarah-Jane Attard. So for once, with all the recent ado in the media about the lack of cultural appreciation towards opera in Malta, I would have expected the cultural authorities to act with more vision. They could have used this event to bring opera closer to the people. Instead whoever was responsible opted once again for the usual mediocre and oft-sprung money-making tactic.

It seems to me that the government never has problems to host free events such as the Isle of MTV concert for thousands of youngsters at an exorbitant cost, and which they justify as a means of advertising Malta. For such an event, money is never a problem. Neither is it a problem to sponsor a football team...in the UK and which is not even in the top league. But for a one-off screening of a high-profile operatic event that would have encouraged locals to support its fellow Maltese tenor, money seems not to have been forthcoming. It is indeed a pity. Instead of creating an opportunity, this event has been reduced to another disgraceful profit-making exercise confirming that in Malta, opera is after all bound to remain elitist.