Royal Opera House (Valletta)
The Royal Opera House ( Maltese It-Teatru Rjal ) is a former opera house in the Maltese capital Valletta . The building, erected in 1866, was largely destroyed in World War II and is now used as an open-air theater .
history
With the Teatru Manoel , Valletta had had its own opera house since 1732, which is now the third oldest operating theater in the world. When the opera in Malta became more and more popular in the middle of the 19th century, it became apparent that its 623 seats would soon no longer be sufficient. It was therefore decided to build a new opera house on a 63 by 34 meter area on Strada Reale ( Kingsway , today Triq ir-Repubblika / Republic Street ) in the west of Valletta. The contract was awarded to the architect Edward Middleton Barry , who had previously designed today's Royal Opera House in London .
The local construction management was the Maltese architect Salvatore Fenech . The project was delayed because Barry, who was never on site himself, had not taken into account the sloping terrain towards the Strada Reale and therefore a 3 meter high terrace with staircases had to be added to the north-western facade.
On October 9, 1866, after five years of construction, the building was inaugurated with a performance of the opera I puritani by Vincenzo Bellini . It had 1095 seats and 200 standing places, a good double that of the Teatru Manoel.
On the evening of May 25, 1873, a fire broke out in the theater, which practically completely destroyed the interior. Reconstruction began immediately, and on October 11, 1877, the opera house was inaugurated a second time. In the first season after the reopening alone, 24 different operas were performed, including 19 performances of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida .
In the following decades, numerous internationally known artists performed at the Royal Opera House , for example Antonio Scotti , Bidu Sayão and Giulietta Simionato .
The Royal Opera House was badly damaged a second time on April 7, 1942 in one of the heavy air raids during the siege of Malta in World War II . Some parts were demolished about ten years later for safety reasons, although the architect in charge of the work said that the building could have been saved. The rest remained in ruins.
Use after the Second World War
In the decades after the war there were various attempts and ideas for the use of the property and the remains of the theater. An architectural competition in 1953 produced a winner, but the project came to nothing. The interior of the theater was later used as a parking lot, and some of the ticket offices that used to be used were small shops.
In the 1980s, the Italian architect Renzo Piano was commissioned to plan the entire area. Although his plans were approved by the government, this project did not materialize either.
Pjazza Teatru Rjal
In 2006 the Maltese government resumed Piano's plans. At the site of the Royal Opera House should now new parliament building emerge. Piano was able to convince his clients, however, to build the parliament building on a neighboring plot of land and to convert the ruins of the old opera house into an open-air theater. In addition, the project with the City Gate included the construction of a completely new entrance to the city. The open-air theater, which had since been given the name Pjazza Teatru Rjal , was inaugurated on August 8, 2013.
The Pjazza Teatru Rjal has a maximum of 897 seats, 215 of them in the stalls and 682 in a grandstand. The stage measures 19.5 by 11.8 meters. In front of the stage there are several height-adjustable platforms that can be used to enlarge the stage or as an orchestra pit. At the rear of the theater, underground changing rooms, cloakrooms and storage rooms were created.
Web links
- The Royal Opera House on culturemalta.org
- Website of the Pjazza Teatru Rjal
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Martin Morana: History on the website of the Pjazza Teatru Rjal
- ^ History on the website of the Royal Opera House London
- ^ The Valletta Royal Opera House in: Malta Independent, December 21, 2008
- ↑ Office of the Maltese Prime Minister: VALLETTA: A quality heritage city for tomorrow (pdf), p. 18
- ↑ a b c d The Royal Opera House on culturemalta.org
- ↑ a b c Valletta's open theater officially inaugurated , The Times of Malta , August 8, 2013
- ↑ Technical Specifications on the Pjazza Teatru Rjal website
Coordinates: 35 ° 53 ′ 47 " N , 14 ° 30 ′ 37.5" E