The Leone Band Club celebrates its birthday
A hundred and fifty years of activities of the Leone Band Club of Victoria are celebrated in a new book which was recently launched at the Ministry for Gozo. In his speech on Ġrajjiet is-Soċjetà Filarmonika Leone – Għawdex, Tonio Portughese made a...
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A hundred and fifty years of activities of the Leone Band Club of Victoria are celebrated in a new book which was recently launched at the Ministry for Gozo.
In his speech on Ġrajjiet is-Soċjetà Filarmonika Leone – Għawdex, Tonio Portughese made a critical analysis of this new work in Maltese.
Dr Portughese assessed the methodology applied by the author, Grazio A. Grech, in basing his research on documentation from various national, private and parochial archives together with hundreds of historical photographs dating back to the society’s foundations in 1863.
The publication also includes details on the various musical programmes by the Leone Band dating back to its first concert in Malta on February 9, 1887 during the feast of St Paul in Valletta; the first opera at its Aurora Opera House, Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini in 1977 andthe latest one, Tosca, in October 2011.
Dr Portughese stated that this new publication captured not only the evolution and achievements of the band club but also the social and cultural developments of Gozo.
Major events underlined by Mr Grech refer to the 80th anniversary of the first performance of the Leone Band’s present anthem and the 100 years of the religious hymn A Maria Assunta by Mro Orlando Crescimanno apart from local and international achievements of the band club since its foundation in 1863.