Editorial

The Royal Opera House was destroyed by a German aerial mine on April 7, 1942. This was a devastating blow that has left a physical and psychological scar on the face of Valletta from which it has still not recovered. The bombed-out ruin stands as a monument to the indecision, inertia and lack of political will of successive governments for the past 67 years.

At last, however, this country may be on the verge of a partial healing of this scar. If the government adopts the exciting proposals put forward by Renzo Piano for the rehabilitation of the old opera house site into an open-air theatre, retaining the old features of the bombed ruins enclosed within a modern, transparent structure, the Maltese people would not only preserve the memory of that once-glorious building but also enjoy - at least for part of the year - the benefits it offers as a theatre. Within the context of the need finally to regenerate what was once the beginning of Valletta's finest street, there can be no doubt that the main thrust of Mr Piano's proposals should be implemented. There is now no turning back for the government but, especially, for Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

An interesting feature of the Piano plan "to keep the soul of the opera house" alive is the wish to add to the existing ruins through the re-construction of part of the building using old stones, columns and statuary that once belonged to the majestic opera house building.

When one sees photographs taken immediately after the Royal Opera House was bombed, it is remarkable how much of the old building survived. At a rough guess perhaps one third of the outer walls were left standing. What one can still see now at the entrance of Valletta is, of course, much less!

A catalogue of part of the stone-work of the old opera house and its location has, in fact, been compiled in an exercise conducted by the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation as part of the research support they have been giving to the Renzo Piano Building Workshop entrusted with the project.

The inventory includes busts and decorated key-stones, column bases and shafts and Corinthian capitals, which once graced the Royal Opera House and then dispersed in a variety of locations from San Anton to Msida, to Santa Lucia and the Marsa Sports Ground.

One hesitates to enquire too closely how stone features that had been stored presumably for safe-keeping with a view to their possible future use came to be scattered around Malta in this way.

What is worrying, however, is that what has been found constitutes only the tip of the ice-berg. "Unless the pieces held in private hands are revealed, they remain untraceable and the list cannot be exhaustive," said the Ministry for Investments.

What is needed now is a concerted effort to complete the cataloguing process and, more importantly, to persuade individuals who in one way or another have acquired such pieces to return them in readiness for their rehabilitation at the new site.

On the assumption that the acquisition of such items was probably ultra vires, it would seem appropriate that an amnesty should be declared in order to encourage people to come forward. It is in the public interest and would be an act of public-spiritedness that this stone-work, which is a part of the nation's cultural heritage, should be returned whence it came. Private owners should be encouraged to respond in a spirit of cooperation.