The Opera Festival
Every year in March, the Manoel Theatre hosts the Opera Festival. It attracts music lovers from all over Europe who relish the chance to visit Malta and see some great performances at the historical Manoel Theatre. SBL has been hosting groups of visitors since the very beginning of the festival and is now the largest supplier with some 500 tickets sold every year.
The Manoel Theatre
The origins of the theatre go back - of course - to the time of the Knights, to 1731 to be precise. That makes it the oldest theatre in the Mediterranean region. It was built to provide the knights with some wholesome entertainment and it hosted plays at first. The Manoel has not always been used as a theatre, its history is as varied as is the Island's. The horse-shoe shape is well known from classic theatres such as the La Scala in Milano and the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Its acoustics are perfect, but what strikes visitors most is the intimate atmosphere with some 500 seats in the stalls and boxes. Lately, restorations by Italian experts have revealed glorious paintings on the balconies and an imposing ceiling. The stage is small but lends itself very well to opera as everybody can follow the performances from a short distance.
The Operas
Typically, the format of the Festival has been two operas and a 'concert'. The concert is usually related to opera, in past years it has been on occasion a concertante. The operas have been as well-known as Falstaff, La Traviata, La Nozze di Figaro, Il Barbiere di Seviglia often accompanied by a lesser-known work such as Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto.
The Performers
Malta has produced great opera singers such as Joseph Calleja and Miriam Gauci who perform regularly in the world's best Opera Houses from the Metropolitan to Covent Garden. Even so, a good part of the success of the Festival can be attributed to the collaboration projects with other theatres such as the Massimo in Palermo. Art directors of international fame such as Elisabeth Smith have completed the international setup, but praise must be given to the amazing National Orchestra under the baton of Dr. Michael Laus. A stunning recent performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, with full choir and 4 soloists attest that the orchestra can achieve great artistic heights in its own right.
The BOV Opera Festival 2010
This year's Festival, sponsored by the Bank of Valletta (BOV) has been held between 17 and 24 March 2010. The first evenings saw a double bill of two unusual performances: the operas Aleko by Rachmaninoff and La Cambiale del Matrimonio by Rossini. The second two evenings featured the opera Alcina by Handel.
In between there was be a concert, presenting works of Chamber Music composed by Opera Composers. Soprano Gillian Zammit did the honours.
Wednesday 17 and Friday 19 March 2010:
Aleko (1892) by Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) and La Cambiale del Matrimonio (1817) by Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)
Monday 22 and Wednesday 24 March 2010:
Alcina (1735) by George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759).
For more information on the composers, click on their names. More information about the operas you will find here:
Next year, 2011
No details available as yet. We'll update as soon as we have more news.
