http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090519/opinion/let-them-eat-fake

The way Bondi puts forward arguments based on reason and common sense is music to my ears! What a contrast to the hysterics and straw-clutching of the likes of KZT and Know-it-All Astrid.

A National Theatre would not be used just for operas but also for other kinds of events that make serious money: musicals, ballets, pop concerts etc … It can be done as long as the theatre has the proper facilities.

Oh, and I’ve just checked La Scala’s prices for operas. If you look at the prices for Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress or Verdi’s Aida you will see that prices start from just 27EUR. This is Milan’s La Scala we’re talking about … one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses.

I have been to a number of operas (in various theatres in the UK) and the most I ever paid for a seat is £35.

EUR80EUR is not necessarily expensive for a full production opera. On the other hand it is expensive for a tenor singing excerpts from different operas (without backdrops, props, costumes, choreography, etc). There’s a big difference.

A national theatre need not only host operas but countless other events that make loads of money. This is sad. Only in a country like Malta does the building of a proper theatre seem like an extravagance.

Government does not pay the artists who appear in Isle of MTV. MTV does. The fees for Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas alone approach 1 million euros.

I can see it now, opera tickets at EUR200 and people queuing up to buy. Seriously though, I was checking for cheap tickets at opera houses .. $400 .. $300. The more I researched, the nuttier an opera house in Malta sounds.

Look at this one:

Section: Complete Box (6 Row: 1-2-3 $3548.00 1

You will be charged in British Pounds for these tickets using the current exchange rate. Tickets may not be delivered until just before the event date and may need to be delivered to your hotel destination. [ID=493508]

And then people complained because tickets to listen to Joseph Calleja were EUR60, and yet they want an opera house. All they want is another reason to grumble.

If there is so much demand, I wonder how no private investor decide to give KZT, Astrid, et al, the building they are crying for.

The problem with the MCC is the acoustics. Talk to any audio engineer who has worked there, and they will all tell you that the reverberation, tonal dispersion and amplitude projection are a problem.

Isle of MTV is indeed considered an investment, but is it a productive investment…ie has anybody quantified how many extra tourists visit the island because of this event?

Horror of horrors, both the Manoel and MCC leak rainwater onto the stage. And let no one question this Fact of Facts because it has been uttered by none other then the All-Knowing. And banish the thought if you are thinking that it is one zillion times cheaper to fix a leaking roof than to build a new theatre.

Yes, let us have a three-thousand seater national theatre in Valletta and dig a big hole next to it to put in a massive underground car park. The all-knowing has decreed that it is OK for the cars of the three thousand to spout their sweet-smelling exhaust up the nostrils of Valletta residents for three evenings every week.

And by the way, you can lock up the Manoel and MCC and throw away the key. There simply aren’t enough theatre-goers to fill all three.