The report on the new proposed project for the Opera House (May 10) must surely raise the dejected spirits of those who have watched the relentless forfeiture of the country's looks to greed and bad taste.

The idea put forward by Giovanni Trevisan through the Edward de Bono Foundation seems to retain the dignity of the original while combining the style of the new.

This is a matter that has been challenging the politicians long enough. We are told that Francesco Laparelli, the military architect commissioned to advise on the construction of Valletta, presented a draft of his proposals to La Vallette within three days of his arrival in Malta and, three months later, the first stone was laid by the Grand Master.

If such acuity and purpose is too much to hope for after years of languorous torpor, perhaps the idea that such an undertaking might boost the national pride and act as a force which binds a nation whose energy has been sapped by gruelling party politics, might spur the authorities into action.

Furthermore, the Opera House project might provide the impetus to move forward at a faster pace with regard to our capital city, promoting the undertaking of the restoration of that giant of Maltese history, Fort St Elmo, besides that of Palace Square, now no better than a parking lot reeking of horses' urine.

The preservation of our heritage, for too long treated with callous brutality, might go some way towards mitigating the irreversible damage perpetrated elsewhere.

Valletta's architectural history is interspersed with foreign contributors, as in other important cities, and although this does not mean it is exclusively better, the often disastrous consequences of "doing it ourself" speak for themselves.

It is time to take this project on board.