Damascene U-turns
Watching TV guru Lou Bondì interact with opera superstar Joseph Calleja on Bondìplus last Thursday warmed the cockles of my heart as it appears that Mr Bondì has changed his opinion of both opera itself and its aficionados.
In an ill-judged article in this august paper only a couple of years ago, Mr Bondì compared opera buffs to a superannuated, down-at-heel lot haunting dingy Valletta drawing rooms or words to that effect.
A couple of years ago, with the then chairman of the Manoel Theatre publicly declaring that opera was a dead art, Mr Bondì, who had probably not realised as yet that opera stars can be nominated for Grammy Awards, joined the fray and between them and some other truculent bandwagon-jumpers caused untold harm to the operatic genre in Malta. It was harm that no amount of admiring chit-chat with Mr Calleja on Bondìplus is going to repair in a hurry.
All of a sudden, thanks to Mr Calleja, we have had a Damascene conversion to the extent that Mr Calleja is now cultural ambassador extraordinaire for Malta, which is to me splendiferous news.
It is so sad that there is still nowhere on this island where, what Mr Calleja excels in most, the interpretation of operatic roles as they should be performed, cannot be realised. There is no opera house or adequate space to put on an opera of Mr Calleja’s repertoire.
This leads me into what appears to be another Damascene conversion as expounded by the Prime Minister last week. After having been strongly criticised and practically vilified, insulted and threatened by one of his own backbenchers, the Prime Minister has, in the space of just over a month, turned the whole thing around. He has not only appeared smiling and relaxed with the very person who demanded his resignation but has also admitted that, in many instances, Franco Debono was right and that he, Lawrence Gonzi, had failed to listen to the people.
Like Louis XVI and Lafayette, the Prime Minister has now created Simon Busuttil as some kind of unofficial ombudsman to listen to our gripes and complaints, so here goes.
To return to opera houses and empty spaces I was recently accused of having given up the struggle to have something more functional than an empty space on the site of the Royal Opera House. I will never give up.
I do not know what is actually being concocted behind the boarding in Republic Street but till now it appears as if the ruins are being well and truly tarted up.
Only a couple of years ago, I had been invited to take part in Bondìplus by Mr Bondì (I have a mug bearing the legend that “I survived Bondìplus!” to prove it). In a direct telephonic connection with Renzo Piano’s Paris office I had asked Bernard Plattner, who was speaking on Mr Piano’s behalf, whether it would be possible to construct an auditorium for orchestral performances similar to the gorgeous one Mr Piano designed for Parma.
I do my research pretty thoroughly and the Sala Della Musica Niccolo Paganini is built over what was left of a sugar refinery utilising the same concept as what is being employed for the open space here. Mr Plattner reiterated instantly that it was very possible and that, inexplicably, nobody had asked him. Naturally, the implication here is that, at that time, there was no brief!
I do not know whether or not there is a brief now, however, when one thinks that the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra has been homeless since 1997 the mind boggles and one is at a loss to explain how a perfectly logical commonsense solution as proposed by myself and confirmed by Mr Plattner can be ignored. Or, rather, I can for when one recalls the words of Minister Austin Gatt, whom I believe has now relinquished his involvement with the project, way back then, it is indeed no surprise that any advice given was totally ignored.
For those of you who do not remember I will jiggle your memories a little. It was all about that letter which 128 persons who know their stuff sent to the Prime Minister in protest regarding the open air non-theatre idea. What Dr Gatt said on TV was that the artists of Malta have to understand that as we live in a democracy, what the government says goes! A declaration worthy of the great Leonid Brezhnev himself, don’t you think?
This must be retracted and an apology made.
This ministerial broadside is symptomatic of a deep-seated disrespect for the intelligentsia and artists in general. Artists, writers and thinkers, scholars and historians are only wheeled out when it is politically opportune to do so. This must stop.
I now lay this whole case before you all and Dr Busuttil, in particular, to be reassessed. I hope that, for the sake of culture in Malta, the decision regarding the opera house space will be reviewed to give the national orchestra a proper home in which the great symphonies will not sound like elephants being stuffed painfully into Mini Minors.
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Narcy Calamatta
Mar 7th 2012, 12:18
"... splendiferous news..." No the appointment of Mro Joseph Calleja to the government (paid?) diplomatic post is not good news at all. Anyone with one iota of political savvy can see that this is a political ruse to silence Mro Calleja for the period before the next elections. His Excellency the Ambassador (employed?) to the Malta Government cannot as a diplomat openly criticise government's decision to betray the people of all the promises they have received in the last 10 decades of getting a fully fledged opera house worthy of the top capital cities in Europe. Invitations on the Bondi Plus puppet shows are politically calculated moves of subterfuge to alienate the populace on the national supposedly politically balanced TV station. The government was warned by one of its own that this roofless theatre saga will lose it the next elections. No thank you - a last minute suedo ear to the ground will not stop genuine artists from standing their ground. Such a communication tool should have been put there 25 years ago. And we who dedicated our lives voluntarily to arts and culture should have been listened to constantly. Any compationate ear, of one who has never been anywhere near a theatrical production in his life, offered on the eve of an elect is not to be trusted. This nation has to grow up one day.
Emanuel Muscat
Mar 7th 2012, 06:52
@G.G.Debono
@A.Camilleri
@KZT
So you have venues in Gozo for you,opera buffs:what more do you want!
Regarding 'wheeling out artists,artists,etc.....' we now need to wheel out our engineers,our scientists,our accountants,etc so that we can continue to earn our living so that when we are strong enough we will again wheel you out in 10 years time.
G G Debono
Mar 7th 2012, 12:22
Opera Buffs ? --- Che centra ??? - - - -
We are not talking opera but culture in general. We are talking about a Concert hall and not an “Opera house” for oper onl;y.....
It just happens to be the term "Opera house" is used because the original Theatre/Concert Hall was referred to as the Opera House when we are speaking interchangeably about a theatre for the performing arts, a concert hall, a theatre – call it what you like – so we are not talking only of "opera buffs" here but of all cultural activities.
Secondly you are talking as though Science and the Arts are mutually exclusive . They are not; on the contrary, they are both essential for a rounded education.
As to your “wheel out our engineers,our scientists,our accountants,etc so that we can continue to earn our living….” Well, fair comment, even if I was an “opera buff” I would agree with that - but please understand that culture is not only a question of money.
I suppose that we can all become ignorant peasants again if everybody thought like you or Bondi that the benefits of culture have to be measured by bureaucrats with graphs showing an economic benefit in accordance with (Bondi’s) myopic view of “best use of taxpayers' money” .
Such narrow anti-elitist thinking this would , of course, exclude coming generations from culture - .
Angus Black
Mar 6th 2012, 21:11
KZT, whilst you seem to have followed Dr Gonzi's Damascene conversion, you did not listen close enough to what was said about the acquisition of a suitable concert hall for symphonic and operatic events.
It sounded to me that the Med Conference Centre conversion/restructuring is still a possibility but one would suspect that the present restraint on spending, and the recession which may affect Malta adversely this year, this project may need to be postponed for now. We simply cannot afford to start too many costly projects especially since there is an unwillingness of the private sector to partner with the government. This is a risky business already, as you may realize and prodding private funds is a chore and a half.
The appointment of Joseph Calleja as Malta's Cultural Ambassador at large is indeed welcome and no one doubts that Joseph Calleja will be a worthy ambassador. One even wonders why no one made the suggestion before the government made the announcement..
I hazard to guess that the 'roofless' site at the Valletta entrance will be very popular during the Summer and hopefully it will one day soon, be complemented by a converted Med Conference Centre which will satisfy opera lovers and also become a permanent home for the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.
Anthony Girard
Mar 6th 2012, 21:09
Thank you Kenneth
Another masterpiece; and yet, many still choose to live in sublime oblivion
Emanuel Muscat
Mar 6th 2012, 18:24
KZT: So now we have dark deeds happening behind boardings!
You talk as if a few opera buffs own the right of what happens to a prime site in our capital city,which was abandoned for 70 years, but not ready to give a foolproof plan of how the use of the building that you want to put up there, is going to pay for its upkeep:this is recession time in Europe and it will last at least another ten years!
Well EU funds have been obtained to restore Fort St.Angelo to the tune of approx. 13 million:at least congratulate the Govt. for having done that!
You and your friends should have formed an organisation to rebuild the opera house as you see fit, out of your pooled funds, which I understand are quite extensive,then you can impose your will on the rest of us,
poor souls,members of the great unwashed.
Mr Andrew Camilleri
Mar 6th 2012, 19:15
Mr. Muscat: the 'opera house' need not be simply for opera. Other forms of cultural entertainment can happen there. Every single city in Europe has its own opera house- except poor Malta because , as you think, we cannot afford it. Why do you expect opera buffs to pay for the opera house, Is Govt not there to provide, nourish and sustain culture? Or does Govt only do this for Eurovision? Lets try to elavate this country from the mediocrity that has sunken into. One last point: if you ever are in Gozo on one of their opera nights, go and stand outside and see the hundreds of Maltese opera lovers walking in. Even better, boom and seat and enjoy. Opera is still popular and efforts should be made by Govt to make it more so.
G G Debono
Mar 6th 2012, 19:54
Mr Muscat
we are talking here of a "space which will give the national orchestra a proper home" in which (to quote) " the great symphonies will not sound like elephants being stuffed painfully into Mini Minors" -
The question is bigger than opera. - an "opera house" is just a name and unfortunately it is the term that has been used. The Vienna Opera house is used for all sorts of other events - so it is just a name - but don't be mislead.
A concert hall, or a theatre (eg 'teatru' manoel!!) - or an "opera House" is a venue for for all sorts of cultural events - virtually every possible cultural event (even rock concerts, if you like)
So please leave out this emphasis on "opera" - I am not an opera buff - but this goes beyond opera so it's not only opera that is at stake here. .
G G Debono
Mar 6th 2012, 17:41
With reference to Lou Bondi's attempt at disparaging Mr Zammit Tabona, It might be on interest for readers to review what I had written at the time in response to Mr Bondi's outrageous articles. Here is one of these :
No culture please, we’re Maltese.
On reading Lou bondi's latest article, ever so cleverly titled "Let them eat fake" one cannot help concluding that Lou Bondi advocates a dumbing down of Malta; just feed the populace mass entertainment and keep them in ignorance lest they develop a taste for expensive knick-knacks like concert halls or even, horrors of horrors, an opera house!
Lou Bondi’s second feeble attempt at a provocative title (which could have been improved to “Let them eat trivia”), is reminiscent of the creepy attitudes and profound intellectual poverty which reigned during the socialist years - when the humanistic subjects were deemed as being devoid of practical value and suppressed or removed from the university curriculum.
Not that there as been all that much improvement; music is seriously neglected at our schools - and beyond. To quote from Karl Fiorini’s excellent letter (Urgent need for cultural education) which appeared in the same issue of the Times: “We have to go to the schools, directly to the children who possess no inhibitions but creative ingenuity, to teach them how to think and instil a sense of curiosity”. As things now stand our young generation is exposed to constant bombardment with abundantly available third-rate stuff and growing in a state of unawareness of the existence of any other sort of music. Music is also omitted from our controversial Systems of Knowledge curriculum which hits students like a sledgehammer when they are 14 years old. By that time it is far far too late to instill that vital curiosity that will stimulate future cultural awareness.
Apart from speculation on irrelevancies such as whether or not European Culture was the reason why people like Kenneth Zammit Tabona voted for entry into the EU six years ago, Lou Bondi ends up being hopelessly one-sided through his inability, on the one hand, to distinguish between the transient and evanescent (but entertaining) music that he just keeps on harping about; (“magnificent Jackson Browne concert” – oh not again, Lou, please!) and, on the other hand, music which has withstood the test of time as typified by the sublime works of geniuses such as JS Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. The significance and humanistic value of their compositions, is such that they have enriched the human condition over the intervening centuries and will survive for coming centuries and millennia yet to come. Would Mr Bondi really want to deprive the younger generation the opportunity of appreciation of such beauty?
Children and youngsters are perfectly capable of appreciating such music. For instance, has Mr Bondi attended any of the series of wonderful childrens’ concerts organized by Sarah Spiteri? Is he aware of the delight children took in Prokoffiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ , Saint Saen’s ‘Carnival of the Animals’ or a special production of Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ (now there’s a dreaded opera for you) which played to a packed house? Assuming that he did not, and, as seems to be the case, if he has not bothered to observe at first hand countless other wholesome cultural events of this kind, then he is not in a position to pontificate on what is good for the nation or not.
The cultural ignorance behind the removal, some years ago, of Malta’s only cultural radio station, Radju Bronja, is echoed presisely by Mr.Bondi’s insulting and superficial rants about “Joseph Calleja singing Funiculì Funiculà and You'll Never Walk Alone” to the Maltese “faux elite”. The decision to remove Radju Bronja, ostensibly ‘on financial grounds’ (a matter of a few thousand euro annually), was nothing less than cultural vandalism of the sort now being advocated by Bondi. Radj Bronja was the only radio station which made culture, including our very own Maltese Culture, accessible to all, and now it is gone. Rather than remove such stations, there should be more of them. As it is, we are now left solely with a plethora of stations most of which belt out mindless trivia so that we, as a nation, risk remaining equally trivial and backward if nothing is done to promote culture and invest in our children and, of course, ourselves. This Taliban approach to culture is despicable and anti-social, since it excludes our children and our young generation, both of whom are growing up quite unaware any other kind of music while only leaving the better off to remain in touch with what is truly of lasting value because they can afford cultural trips abroad.
It is relevant to quote one example. In 2006 there was a music recital to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Birth of Carmelo Pace. Thanks to the poverty of cultural education in our schools and to the absence of a cultural element in our media, it is unlikely that there are many who remotely knew that Carmelo Pace was one of Malta’s foremost composers. This concert was attended by just twelve people – inclusive of one music critic and six people who were related to the performing musicians; the musicians literally played to an empty hall. This is illustrative of the shameful poverty of appreciation of our very own culture. Unfortunately Lou Bondi’s arguments advocate this pathetic situation. He equates culture with elitism; this is a dangerous and pernicious form of inverted snobbery. Lou Bondi writes as though the huge legacy of European culture, of which we form part, simply didn’t exist.
In the true spirit of his title, ‘Just feed them fake’ Mr Bondi merely dismisses investing in culture for coming generations in terms of “the best use of taxpayers' money” with vague allusions to “rational discussion”. He dubs pleas for encouragement of culture, as “the hysterics of the last act of Tosca”. Shame on him. The Maltese nation deserves better.
Martin Webster
Mar 6th 2012, 15:54
What say you, Simon?
And will you still keep listening after the next election, or is yours a temporary posting?
Patrick Zammit
Mar 6th 2012, 13:27
Do you think that only artists, writers and thinkers, scholars and historians are being abused by the government in the manner you depicted?
Although I understand how hurt and frustrated you must feel about the whole story, do you really think that the MPO sounds like a herd of ill treated elephants when playing at say, MCC?
Mr Joe Micallef
Mar 6th 2012, 15:22
Patrick truth be said the MCC does not have the best acoustics. But modern technology has solutions to that.
In fact even the Paganini Auditorium would not be able to host any type of performance if it wasn’t for the high end acoustic technology installed there. Suffice to say that the building has two huge front and back glass panes instead of the original walls that were pulled down – apart from the problem of tunnelling the structure generates.
Other than that the MPO is a classical example of someone punching far above one's weight.
Mr Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Mar 6th 2012, 17:35
at the MCC the MPO sound like a whatever the collective noun is for more than one mouse...............joking apart all MCC projects to improve accoustics have been stymied by MEPA with very cogent reasons
Karl Consiglio
Mar 6th 2012, 13:05
Both Lou and KZT,
Useless fighting it out now, not going to have neither orchestra, nor rock, just square politicians with briefcases.
Mr Joe Micallef
Mar 6th 2012, 11:53
Granted that, irrespectively of whatever the brief contained, I am all in favour of Piano's (Creative and inspirational) solution for the use of the open space previously occupied by a few relics of the old theatre, I am afraid that you are totally incorrect when you write.
"I do my research pretty thoroughly and the Sala Della Musica Niccolo Paganini is built over what was left of a sugar refinery utilising the same concept as what is being employed for the open space here"
The structure of the Eridiana Sugar refinery was largely intact, not only, but Piano re-interpretation required pulling parts of it down! Accountability calls for facts – Damascus can wait – well not really at the moment!
Mr Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Mar 6th 2012, 13:32
your comments mr Micallef make not one iota of difference to the argument in hand . You ignore the fact that mr plattner declared that out of all the counterproposals made by the Bondi plus panel that night, the auditorium option was the only feasible one. We are not getting lost in irrelevant detail here but discussing a derision of popular culture, a complete misinterpretation of democracy and a total waste of taxpayers money .
Mr Joe Micallef
Mar 6th 2012, 14:25
I see! Irrelevant detail you say - Prosit.
You may think so (because in fact it is not and does make a huge difference) but it certainly goes a long way to qualify "I do my research pretty thoroughly" and all that surrounds it.
Have you been to the rest of the Barilla Centre close by - another Piano gem. True it now also hosts a shopping centre and that may be too mundane for guardians of democracy
Mr Kenneth Zammit Tabona
Mar 6th 2012, 10:44
Thanks for re posting your article Lou: I had forgotten how scathingly damaging it was.....extortionists? It shocks and upsets me even now.
Lou Bondi
Mar 6th 2012, 10:06
For the sake of accuracy, here is what I had actually written, in black on white. A damacene turn? Not quite. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090508/opinion/rocking-the-opera-house.256000
G G Debono
Mar 6th 2012, 12:51
To Lou Bondi
RE " A damacene turn? Not quite" EH ???
Er, well, Let's see what you wrote !
The sarcasm started with your title: “ Rocking the opera house ” No ?
Then the sick comments continue ….
“ tens of thousands of taxpayer euros burn between one aria and another”
“, taxpayers should buy them a rather expensive toy, a new opera house” –
Well, …. of course, what we have now is is a cheap roofless toy. …….While the expensive toy goes to our politicians in the form of a spanking new parliament.
“ Taxpayers who are uninterested in opera have no divine obligation to fund the tastes of 700 people. If opera is not financially feasible in Malta, take a plane.”
“ (Culture) is best left to the vagaries of the plebeian market”
Then there were the INSULTS :
“ tiresome men and women still sipping their tea in a musty Valletta piano nobile circa 1950,”
“ suggest that they look north” (to - to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin etc etc )
“irrational shrillness of the opera brigade's coda”
And finally, this ghastly overweening self-indulgence - -
“(off to) Rome for a Jackson Browne concert, two hours of Californian soft rock at its dark best.” And ……….Can you imagine me expecting opera lovers to pay for me to hear him sing "Take it easy" under a pale Roman moon?”
And by the way --- have you forgotten something even worse. Remember that scribble “Let them eat fake” in which you recommend a Taliban approach to culture in Malta? – a dumbing down of the Maltese? ..and the attitude that culture only boiled down to a matter of money – how very sad.
Thanks Lou – Don't kid yourself - The Maltese are more intelligent than you think.
Mr Andrew Camilleri
Mar 6th 2012, 19:19
Lou Bondi, thank you for reminding us about this most disgusting of articles, promoting mediocity, shallowness and classism.
Please choose the reason of your report below: