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The Arts
Gerald Fenech, MaltaMedia's Arts Correspondent, takes a look at how 2001 shaped the various cultural spheres in Malta. As normal in Malta, a huge melee of cultural activities packed the season throughout the year and last season was no exception. There were a few interesting books also launched whilst a number of art exhibitions caught the people's eye with their wonderful diversity and array of 'objects d'art' that show our rich national heritage. Amongst the regular appointments in the season was the Manoel Theatre Opera Festival. Here we had a host of Haydn operas amongst which was the intriguing 'I Pescatrici' with an all-Hungarian cast. The Manoel also presented the classic 'Werther' by Massenet with Juan Gambina in the title role, surely a performance that was quite satisfactory on merit and artistic excellence. Crossing over to our sister island found a wonderful and lavish production of Puccini's evergreen 'Madam Butterfly', with great stage direction in the hands of Joe Friggieri. Symphonic concerts were plentiful and intriguing with a number of new presentations by the National Orchestra who played various works along their travels including Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. We also had the regular MCI season, concerts at St James Cavalier, the lunchtime recitals, several events at the Sala Isourad, organ and choral recitals at St John's and St Paul's Anglican and a smattering of recitals at various embassies and official residences. Phew!, the list is almost never ending and makes me wonder how we all manage to attend such stuff regularly. Art was also pretty plentiful. Apart from various exhibitions at the National Museum for Fine Arts, there were a number of quality exhibitions at the Manoel Theatre Courtyard. John Martin Borg, Norbert Francis Attard and several other upcoming names such as Mark Schembri exhibited at Bay Street and in more exotic locations whilst there were also a number of auctions including some Patrimonju treasures and also an intriguing smattering of private displays such as the late Judge Magri's splendid auction in which over a million pounds must have changed hands! Books were also pretty plentiful. Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti continued their indispensable Treasures of Malta series and they are to be lauded for reprinting classics such as Quentin Hughes' Fortress, Roderick Cavaliero's Last of the Crusaders and new publications such as Margaret Harker's Photography in Malta, Joseph Muscat's book on antique Maltese boats and the wonderfully inventive book by Vanni Bonello, Histories of Malta Vol. 2, Figments and Fragments. Miranda publications continued to stun us all with Nicholas DePiro's book on Mdina - Influence and Patronage and their recent publication, The Soverign Palaces of Malta, another exercise in photographic splendour although with rather poor text. Local books also sprouted with KKM releasing a number of classic reprints, Ragel bil-Ghaqal, Censu Barbara, Cejlu Tonna, San Gwann and Zmien l-Ispanjoli by Guze Galea, a huge dictionary by Guze Aquilina and also their much awaited Heritage. Bieb Bieb publications thrilled the military enthusiast with Malta at War which has found a firm footing in the partwork section. For more information on the arts in Malta visit the relevant section in aboutmalta.com. All the books
mentioned in this article are available from books.aboutmalta.com. |
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