As part of his Valletta project, Renzo Piano is hoping that that the open air multi-functional theatre would be the "star attraction" of the whole project, "a magical place in the Mediterranean area". Building the Royal Opera House back to its original glory would be "fake and an insult to historians and to all those who love history". These are a few arguments put forward by Mr Piano for his Opera project. Coming from a world-renowned architect one tends to acknowledge these ideas. Nevertheless, acknowledging the facts is completely another thing.

Lately I was reading about the city of Dresden. Prior to the war, this capital city of the German state of Saxony was known as the cultural capital of Germany. Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the electors and kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The city was completely destroyed by the controversial Allied aerial bombing towards the end of World War II. Landmarks such as the Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady), Zwinger Palace and the Semperoper (Opera House) suffered huge damage; some of them were completely wiped out.

After the War and more importantly after the reunification of Germany, Dresden wanted to reclaim its cultural status. On top of their agenda was the rebuilding of these landmarks, bringing them back to their original glory. The Semperoper, Dresden state opera house, was rebuilt in 1985. Keeping the exact original Baroque style, with latest of technology in the inside, it reopened exactly 40 years later on February 13, with the same opera that was last performed before its destruction. Again, using original plans used by builder Georg Bähr in the 1720s, reconstruction on the Frauenkirche finally began in 1993 and was completed only last year. As for the Zwinger Palace, a referendum was called after the war and the people of Dresden voted to restore the building and generally preferred to rebuild the glories of the city, instead of having the ruins razed to make way for the architecture of socialist realism then prevalent in East Germany. In order to restore their glory and cultural status, the people of Dresden opted for the past, rather than "creative options" of present and futuristic architecture. Even though they had to wait for decades to see those remarkable buildings rebuilt according to their original plans and suffered heavily from political bureaucracy, the people of Germany are once more proud of their cultural monuments.

And here in Malta, even if the government and opposition, NGOs, architects and world famous artists are vividly enthusiastic about Piano's plans, the people are in complete disapproval, especially about the Opera House site.

One does not need polls or surveys to understand what the nation wants and more importantly what the country needs. Like the Germans, the Maltese want to see their cultural identity restored by bestowing back the glory to our capital city in its original grandeur.