We all love a Rags-to-Riches story and generally associate them with the American continent. However, Malta has its very own stories of entrepreneurs who started off with very little but who had vision, staying power, determination, confidence and the ambition to pursue their ideas and turn them into success stories. One of these is the Cassar family of Marsovin fame who this year are celebrating their 100th anniversary.
Earlier this week I was invited to what must be the central event of these celebrations. It was a meticulously organised quality evening at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. Even the programme was elegant with details of the performers as well as reproductions of paintings of wine labels commissioned to various artists over the years.
Marsovin has a long standing reputation as a winery that firmly supports the Maltese art scene. For decades the family has sponsored many an artist. The first to be commissioned to design a wine label so was the talented artist, graphic and stamp designer Emvin Cremona back in 1967.
The evening started at the La Vallette Hall, the main Banqueting Hall and formerly the Great Magazine Ward, an architectural gem which seems to go on for miles. I love its vaulted ceiling, and drinks and canapés were served in this great ambience. It was a gala evening and most men turned up in black tie and the women in evening dress.
Employees who had worked with the company over the years, were invited together with the great and the good.
It was soon show time at the conference centre. Jeremy Cassar, CEO went up on the stage and told the audience, in a nutshell, how the Marsovin story evolved, praising his great grandfather, Anthony Cassar known as is-Sur Tonin who began trading even before he was ten years old and with hardly any schooling as was common in those days. He was the inspiration and behind the beginnings of Marsovin. He ventured into his own wine business with his brother Ġorġ, with horse-drawn deliveries from casks and thus began the Marsovin legacy.
It was Is-Sur Tonin's son Joe who took the first step and purchased land to grow their own grapes. Tony, Joe's son and the third generation took over Marsovin when he was in his 20s as his father was offered the position of chairman of MDC which he felt he could not turn down.
Tony, too, turned out to be another innovator with vision. He bought more tracks of land to plant vines following the French philosophy of estate wines. He concentrated on quality and rebuilt the cellars in Marsa which had belonged to the Knights of Malta and which had been destroyed but happily, the stones preserved.
Jeremy is a fourth generation Cassar and as forward looking as his forebears. Last year he launched the Marnisi Organic wine - the first organic wine to be produced in Malta. He is full of plans and ideas and will not doubt bring more glory to the Cassar dynasty.
An excellent documentary by Benita Cassar Torreggiani followed. There were interviews and information about one of Malta's leading companies which is still owned by one family.
The Prime Minister and Mrs Michelle Muscat were guests of honour that evening and Dr Muscat said a few words of appreciation and praised the entrepreneurial spirit of the Cassar family. He also said that the Marsovin wine, Primus (Imqadded ta'Malta), is served at official banquets and other occasions. The Prime Minister mentioned that often, on these occasions, even presidents and prime ministers from abroad comment on the wine and want to know more about it. Primus, I gather, is the only Maltese wine made with sun-dried grapes.
We were in for another treat that evening with performing artists Soprano Virginia Kerr, Mezzo soprano Claire Massa, Vocalist Kathy Nugent, Samuel Mallia on the alto saxophone and Seho Lee on the piano, entertaining us.
Claire gave us Una Voce Poco Fa from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She also sang a duet with Virginia Kerr (who is Jeremy's aunt) - the much loved Barcarolle from Offenbach's Les Contes D'Hoffman and a song cycle for mezzo soprano, alto saxophone and piano commissioned by Marsovin for the occasion: Ghenba. The music is composed by Albert Garzia and the poem to which the music is set by Immanuel Mifsud, both talented in their own field. I am always a little suspicious of new music and generally prepare myself to be bored. But I loved this composition of Albert Garzia who is Maltese and Claire did it justice.
In the programme we were given all the words of Ghenba. So appropriate for the occasion.
Virginia Kerr, in her beautiful soprano voice sang Dvořak's Song to the Moon from Rosalka, the well-known aria by Kálmán.
Samuel Mallia was a revelation to me. I have never heard him play his saxophone before. So young - born in 1996. I am not even acquainted with the composer Pedro Iturralde whose Pequeña Czarda, he played and which seemed familiar to me. In fact the main theme is very similar to one of Charles Camilleri's compositions but don't ask me which. I shall have to play them all to find out but not now.
Vocalist Kathy Nugent is one of Ireland's most loved and recognised singers. She sang with verve and style Don't Rain on my Parade from Funny Girl.
The pianist, Dr Seho Lee, from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin was an excellent accompanist and I would love to hear him play on his own.
The Finale where singers and musicians came together brought the concert to a happy end with the famous Brindisi from La Traviata which put us all in an even better mood.
It irks me that I can no longer take the stairs two at a time, especially as I had a very bad fall at MCC. Only the first of a number of them. I am now almost a specialist. Having to wear glasses to read but cannot see the stage with them on is another irritation of advancing age. And I now have spare spectacles all over the place as otherwise I cannot read anything. Without them life suddenly becomes a winter of discontent. That was a happy evening, too, since I didn't forgot to bring my specs nor did I lose them.
A sumptuous buffet and a new Marsovin wine awaited us in the La Valette Hall.
It was an excellent evening with every detail taken care of. The Cassar family do things properly with attention to detail.
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