Last Monday’s unveiling by the Manoel Theatre of its newly bought harpsichord was a happy occasion, made happier by chairman Michael Grech’s announcement that his theatre would be reviving in 2012 the Baroque Festival which has now been dormant for a few years.
Joe Friggieri’s L-Għanja taċ-Ċinju is the only original play by a Maltese playwright in this season’s programme- Paul Xuereb
Baroque music, opera and drama belong to the Manoel’s long history, and modern performances have been shown to figure very well in it. I trust the theatre will remember, however, that in a number of European countries, the baroque is no rarity, so if it intends to attract foreign audiences it will have to persuade fine ensembles, chamber orchestras, individual performers and theatrical companies to come over to perform in Malta.
Singers like the young soprano Claire Debono, who has been doing very well for herself singing 18th century operas in Europe and featuring impressively on CDs and DVDs, and who has yet to perform at the Manoel, is the kind of singer we should certainly invite to come over. Of course there are many now famous performers whose presence on the Manoel’s stage would attract the thousands of music lovers on Europe who swoon over the baroque.
The theatre, however, is getting off to a good start with a performance on Friday by Les Paladins, highly respected performers of baroque music, of music by Vivaldi and Pergolesi.
Over drinks after the press conference and after Ramona Zammit Formosa’s elegant if disappointingly brief performance on the harpsichord, I had an interesting chat with Charlotte Stafrace, a member of the Manoel’s management committee and also a well-known and much admired actress.
We agreed that the Manoel’s offerings in the dramatic line are much too few, shockingly few to my mind, these few in-clude panto, of course, a musical, and a TV offshoot, Yes, Prime Minister.
Stafrace feels strongly – and rightly so – that the Manoel programme should include examples of the best plays being written by British and American playwrights.
Works like dramatisations of The Great Gatsby or of Dickens’s Oliver Twist are all well and good but acceptable only if sophisticated theatregoers – and I am sure they run into a couple of thousand – are given something more substantial as well.
The Manoel Theatre is regarded unofficially as our national theatre, and so it is indeed in a way not just because it is state owned, but also because in its history it condenses Malta’s theatrical history since 1732.
But does it fully deserve this appellation if it does so very little to encourage the production of good drama in Maltese, and the increased improvement, technical and artistic, of theatrical production in this country?
We have already seen Joe Friggieri’s L-Għanja taċ-Ċinju which, believe it or not, is the only original play by a Maltese playwright in this season’s programme.
Does the Manoel have a programme for commissioning the writing of new plays which, if accepted, are rewarded by being given full performances and royalties for the author? I suspect it does not, or if it does it is doing its best to keep the programme under cover.
Stafrace also feels that theatrical direction at the moment is far from being at a peak, and that the Manoel could help by inviting one or two proven directors from abroad, provide them with a few Maltese understudies, and get them to work with a number of Maltese performers, both established ones and promising young ones.
Though of course we have imaginative directors like Albert Marshall and Chris Gatt, I agree with her that it would do Maltese theatre a wealth of good if we had new faces with new ideas and up-to-date techniques working in our midst if only for a season.
The trouble is that as usual the Manoel is not swimming in the lolly and that these are not the best of times for sprinkling thousands of euros all over the place. If, however, Valletta becomes European Cultural Capital in 2018, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, the Environment and Culture Mario de Marco and his ministry must do something substantial to beef up our beloved Manoel’s finances.