The Astra Theatre is celebrating its jubilee today – 50 glorious years in Republic Street, Victoria.

Sixty-one productions later, including double representations in most years since 1978, the institution celebrates its 50th anniversary with a cast of theatre legends to applaud the people and plays that have made the Astra one of the most cherished and creative wellsprings of local theatre: from premieres of plays to outstanding revivals of classic plays and musicals.

“Teatru Astra is celebrating the 50th anniversary since its official inauguration as the prime cultural complex on the island on January 20, 1968,” says Michael Formosa, the administrative secretary at Astra Theatre.

Cathy Lawlor interpreted the role of Eva Peron in Evita, another musical experience in March last year.

Construction work on the £55,000 horseshoe-shaped theatre started in 1965. Paul Cassar was the driving force behind the project.

“Until the 1960s, Gozo was bereft of a commercial theatre, thus the La Stella Band committee agreed to build one in the very centre of Victoria. Although the committee could not fork out the huge sum that such a project involved, the management embarked on this project following the promise of disinterested work and financial support from its supporters,” remembers Cassar.

The project started with a capital outlay of just Lm400 in the society’s accounts.

“But we had a strong team supporting us, including supporters who donated their time and money to achieve what we have today,” says Formosa.

The theatre’s opening production was an operetta, Il Cuore di Ben, adapted by Maestro Giuseppe Giardini Vella, bandmaster of La Stella Band, directed by George Xerri and conducted by Mro Joseph Vella.

“I remember it was one of the first operettas I conducted, at a time when I was not the official maestro of the La Stella Philharmonic Society. There was a lot of enthusiasm at the time. I look back to those days and witness the extent of change the productions at the Astra have experienced,” says Vella.

Joseph Calleja in La Bohème in 2005.

Since then, the Astra has provided a space for local talent to rub shoulders with international artists of note and offer high-powered representations which put Gozo on the global show business map.

“Indeed, nothing succeeds like success,” Formosa adds.

The Astra can rightly claim to be the defining point in the local milieu, turning Gozo into a destination for multifaceted high-calibre cultural offerings.

“One can say that 1968 was a happy year for Gozo in general and Victoria in particular,” Formosa says.

“This is not to say that before 1968 there was nothing going on. However, the new premises,  offered the appropriate space for things to happen on a new scale. In fact, the oldest legally instituted band on the island, the La Stella Vincitrice, had been a trailblazer throughout the previous era. The La Stella Philharmonic Society had, in fact, been instrumental in introducing to the public diverse genres of musical entertainment, not least the much-loved operetta.”

The Maltese tenor in Macbeth in 2007.

Opera at the Astra has reached truly international standards with memorable productions

With the inauguration of the Astra’s acoustically-perfect auditorium making it the best venue of its kind in the Maltese islands, productions could reach hitherto unscaled heights, he says.

Patrons could enjoy productions such as The Merry Widow, La Principessa della Czardas, The Gondoliers, The Great Waltz and Geisha, just to name a number of the operettas staged, as well as literary masterpieces by Goldoni (Il Bugiardo), Feydeau (Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze), Molière (Le Malade Imaginaire), Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice) and a host of other plays.

Visiting companies featured prominently and practically all major companies in Malta were billed to perform at some time or other.

Leading Malta companies staged operettas such as Die Fleremaus, The Gypsy Baron, Orpheus in the Underworld and plays such as View from the Bridge.

Perhaps the greatest contribution Astra made was in the world of opera, starting off with opera legends such as Aldo Protti and Nicola Rossi Lemeni.

“Opera at the Astra has reached truly international standards with memorable productions mixing the best of local talent with top-of-the range artists,” says Formosa.

“Teatru Astra is also justly proud to have launched the meteoric career of Joseph Calleja when in 1997 he was called by Mro Vella, resident conductor, to interpret the role of Macduff in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth at the age of 19.”

The Maltese tenor returned to the Astra for Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème in 2005 and again in 2007 in the same role of Macduff to mark the 10th anniversary of his debut.

In recent years, the Astra has also ventured into the world of the musicals, with productions including Grease and Evita. This year Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar is being staged.

Formosa says the Astra is committed to intensify its efforts to ensure that the standards achieved are not only maintained but surpassed.

“The community which animates the Astra is proud of this legacy and is keen to take forward this exceptional experience.”

Dr George Borg Olivier inaugurated the Astra Theatre on January 20, 1968. The theatre was blessed by then Gozo Bishop Joseph Pace.