Chi va piano va sano e lontano

(he who goes slowly, goes safely and goes far.)

Ma, chi va “Renzo Piano va sano e lontano?

Let the people talk, through a referendum.

A referendum is a must for these three major taxpayers’ projects:

• The Valletta Royal Opera House.

• The new parliament building in Freedom Square

• City Gate.

The Valletta Royal Opera House project should not lift off before holding a national referendum and before all related issues are discussed with all those Opera and Operetta singers, tenors, sopranos, ballerinas, musicians, playwrights, directors, performers and historians, and before Mepa and Parliament approve the three projects. The end result by the government should not be volgio, posso e faccio.

As one example of many, even William Shakespeare (1564-1616) an English poet, actor and playwright and the world’s most pre-eminent dramatist, only went ahead with his own playhouse theatre projects after much intense study beforehand. At the time, that is before and during the construction of his playhouse, Shakespeare was always in constant consultation with his scholars and performers and with the man in the street in Stratford-upon-Avon and London (where his theatre housed a 3,000-strong audience). There was very little interference from any Royals during the Elizabethan era, and with absolutely no impediment from the Crown or otherwise. In 2009 (393 years after Shakespeare), on the very same site as the old Valletta Royal Opera House, we cannot even manage to house half that number. A theatre/opera house without tiers is like a giraffe without its neck.

Our time is limited, more limited than ever before; the plane is already on the runway and ready for take off, but with good will it could be stopped from making a tragic flight, so let’s find time for everybody to voice his/her opinion and the best way is through a referendum.

Once it is going to be built with taxpayers’ money, the man in the street should have his say before being shell-shocked (post war) by the end result of the entire project. A shell-form open-air Opera House, with bells, smells and yells and possibly more than that too, is no solution. The way it is being planned will no doubt result in total distraction throughout the entire concert/performance, both for those performing and the audience. Renzo Piano would have got his money at the end of the day, and the government would have got its way too, but the poor man in the street represented by the same government would be further frustrated and disappointed unless he is given the chance to cast his vote in a referendum.

What the cast and audience needs to watch out for:

• rain, hail, thunderstorms, heat waves, and the rest of nature’s elements hitting us;

• bird droppings, insects, mosquitoes, bees and beehives, cockroaches, rats, mice;

• noise and air pollution in general;

• aircraft flying overhead, runway 31 being directly in line with the Valletta harbour coast;

• aircraft and helicopters, both landing and taking off from aircraft carriers in the harbour;

• harbour smog and ships, ambulances and police cars all blaring their horns/sirens;

• fireworks and petards, especially during the festa season;

• all the yelling and noise of street vendors selling their wares;

• festivities and mass meetings in Floriana and protest marches in Valletta OR performances at the Royal Opera House??

• will it then be carnival, demonstrations, or theatre?

• bells in Valletta and Floriana churches tolling away every 15 minutes, and all those bells tolling together on feast days and public holidays, “God Help Us”.

One must not forget that the cast makes a decent living out of the sales of tickets for a particular performance (correct me if I’m wrong) and would be deprived of their fair share of

performance-money.

Consequently, the government too would be deprived of its revenue because more people would be watching the concert/performance/opera/operetta/ballet from outside the theatre than inside the theatre itself. I include here a particular Ministry building, which is situated directly opposite the Royal Opera House in Republic Street (Kingsway) where civil servants and their respective families could watch from the Ministry’s rooftop and balconies.

Then we have rooftops and balconies of residences, shops, offices and other commercial premises in Republic Street and South Street, including a bank and a police station, all overlooking the theatre; so here again, you’ll have more people watching for FREE from their respective rooftops and balconies, also with the possibility of children shouting and making all sorts of noises during a performance.

Ahhhh, lest we forget, we also have the housing estate, which has a roof span that could hold at least as many people as the theatre itself,

and another 200/300 of them from windows and balconies of the same building overlooking Republic Street. The end result is that we will have absolutely no tiers inside the theatre but some 3-4-5-6 tiers outside the theatre with no revenue forthcoming for cast and government alike. If one is old enough to remember the Empire Stadium in Gzira in the early 50s and 60s and early 70s, one could see football-supporters watching the game from the roofs of houses in two particular streets in the area.

And last but not least, with a newly proposed Parliament on Freedom Square overlooking the proposed open air theatre, will the MPs be there to set a good example or create yet another strangers’ gallery? Surely that this is no place for a parliament building; – an existing Ministry building in Valletta could be converted into a Parliament overnight with just a couple of a few hundred of thousands of euros (not millions) to cover refurbishing costs.

The destroyed Royal Opera House should be built in the same magnificent style as it once stood, and if need be extended onto Freedom Square, while Piano’s City Gate project could go ahead because it is in line with the rest of Valletta’s past and present environment.

On a final note, I believe that all Maltese citizens should put their heads together with the Maltese government and ask the European Union to contribute towards the reconstruction of the Valletta Royal Opera House and to help us finance this controversial, once-upon-a-time nostalgic gem.

Louis Camilleri

KAPPARA