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A revised and enlarged second edition of Paul Xuereb’s book on the history of the Manoel Theatre has been published.
The Manoel Theatre: a short history was originally published in 1996.
The Manoel Theatre is the only theatre building still regularly used in Malta that dates back to the period when Malta was ruled by the Order of St John.
It was founded by the Portuguese Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena in 1732 and was used regularly by the knights for their amateur performances of plays and even operas, and also by visiting companies.
Although meant for “the honest entertainment of the public”, it was the young knights who dominated it either as performers or as members of the audience.
During the siege of the French occupiers (1798-1800), the theatre was managed by the Maltese opera composer Nicolo Isouard and provided the besieged soldiers with their main entertainment.
The inauguration of a new opera house in 1866 meant a change in name from Theatre Royal to Manoel Theatre.
Except for four seasons when it temporarily assumed its old functions while the new theatre, destroyed by fire, was being rebuilt, the Manoel Theatre went through hard times until it began to present seasons of the new musical genre, operetta as well as new British-American musical theatre.
During the 20th century the Manoel Theatre was known largely for its productions of plays in English, mostly presented by the MADC, but its private owners used it mostly as a cinema, and after World War II, when the Royal Opera House was destroyed by bombing, it presented a number of opera seasons.
In the late 1950s, the Labour government decided to bring the theatre back into state ownership and it opened as a state theatre in December 1960.
Since then its programmes have included many classical music events, a smattering of opera, dance and much drama, including the major plays of Malta’s great dramatist, Francis Ebejer.
The last decades of the 20th century were dominated by Ebejer whose weighty full-scale plays roused both enthusiasm and controversy.
Opera at the Manoel Theatre included new works by Maltese composers Carmelo Pace and Charles Camilleri, and it found a larger public following the successes of soprano Miriam Gauci and tenor Joseph Calleja.
Xuereb’s first acquaintance with the Manoel was during World War II his father took him to see Walt Disney’s Snow White.
As a keen young actor he trod the Manoel’s boards in University of Malta student productions, and later in Maltese and Italian language productions.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, he appeared in the premieres of major plays by Ebejer, and in productions by his admired friend Joe Friggieri.
In the 1990s and early years of the new century he was active in Friends of the Manoel Theatre and on the theatre’s management committee.
Xuereb has been the main drama critic for The Sunday Times since the 1960s.