Weather does talking on roofless theatre

For quite a while now, we have been hearing from the government how great the Renzo Piano plans for the roofless Opera House are. According to Lawrence Gonzi, Malta deserves a theatre that is different to the ones already in existence. So it seemed that according to the government all we deserve is a theatre that could only function in the height of summer. Now, we know that we can't even be sure of using it then! Let's look at what has happened in the past week.

A performance by the EU Baroque Orchestra was due to take place at the President's Palace courtyard in Valletta - this is protected enough, you would think. Apparently not, as this had to be moved at the request of the organisers to the Ambassador's Hall at the Auberge de Castille due to the humid weather. In the words of the organisers, "Such weather conditions wreak havoc on instruments in general but have a stronger effect on stringed instruments as they can affect tuning. This would have been exacerbated in the case of the baroque orchestra, which uses period instruments that employ gut strings that are even more susceptible to the weather."

Then we had the postponement of another concert, this time by Joseph Calleja, due to take place at the Granaries. In this case the postponement is due to strong winds. I can imagine Mr Calleja was saying, "I told you so" as he had already spoken out against the government's idea of a roofless theatre.

Dr Gonzi has stated in the press that the decision on whether or not to have a roofless theatre was left in the hands of Renzo Piano, which in my opinion is a disgrace.

What gives this government the right to hand over such an important decision to a foreign architect who is obviously blind to the real needs of the Maltese people? It would appear that Piano is right and 128 renowned artists are wrong with regard to this matter.

Therefore, in the light of what has happened in the past few days can I ask the government to justify its stand on this matter? Why is the government so anxious to accept the White Rocks deal and yet not even considering the Opera House deal from Architect Giovanni Trevisan who has promised that he can build a 1,200-seat theatre on the site of the Opera House at no cost to the government?

Like the White Rocks project, a consortium is offering to build top-class facilities in return for a 30-year lease on the property. Innocent enough...except for the fact that what the government has accepted at White Rocks, it's refusing at City Gate. This makes one wonder why it is so important to the government that this stupid roofless theatre proposal should go ahead, especially when the majority of Maltese people are opposed to it. It would be interesting to see if anyone within the present government has the courage to answer these questions.