[Daphne – I don’t work for the Nationalist Party.]

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100303/local/serracino-inglott-insists-theatre-without-a-roof-is-useless

[Daphne – My different stance, as you put it, is widely known. Without wishing to be rude, nobody in his right mind would ever take Peter Serracino Inglott’s advice on matters of aesthetics. Nor should they take his advice on opera. Half the audience walked out of the sole airing of his opera The Maltese Cross during the break for the bar. I find him to be an extremely self-satisfied and irritating man who is largely detached from reality. He has had very little to do with the Nationalist Party for years now, which is largely why the party has been so successful.]

Since Labour places Malta first and foremost, one would assume that a call for fresh designs by Maltese architects, of course, be submitted in a nationwide contest.

Which Maltese architect in his right mind would even dream of participating unless he is a sadist and willing to go through the garbage his fellow Maltese will drag him through as they did Piano?

The other thing which is conveniently ignored is the fact that the bombed site is far too small for a sustainable multi-purpose theatre which the minions don’t seem to understand.

The Labour Party has once more thrown the stone and hid the hand that threw it because one has to be somewhat stupid not to figure out who the behind-the-scenes s**t disturbers are and who at one time or another held hands with the LP. The Labour Party should remember that what goes around comes around and having been bitten so many times, they should know better, but I suppose, they are too thick to think beyond the tip of their nose.

The same Labour Party has once more merged with the GWU and participated in the two day protest of sorts while the GWU and the MUT had the cheek to say that the protest was non-political!

You’re right, some of them did perform there. I watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the ruins. The acting was brilliant – the venue crap, to be completely honest. The fact that a theatre company is ready to use a bombed out site as a venue doesn’t mean that the replacement to that site should be as bad – even if it’s a landmark project, right under their nose, and subsidised by the state. I’ve been in theatres that satisfy none of those criteria, but which have brilliant acoustics and great stage and seating arrangements. Given the choice, I’d prefer the latter theatre type anytime.

MS

You are being unfair to Maltese architects. We have some very good ones and the reason they are not protesting against Piano’s proposals is because, as professionals, they basically agree with them. This was made clear from the start.

San Anton Gardens is in a particularly bad location because Lija and other fireworks-happy villages are so near. I have attended performances in Argotti Gardens and they were not at all disturbed by fireworks being let off for the Hamrun and Msida feasts.

I think Renzo Piano said that his studio has gone into the acoustics of the proposed theatre and the removable transparent “walls” to be set up play a key role in this.

We have to remember that this is not the first theatre and open-air venue that Piano has designed and I don’t think he would associate his name with a project that turns out to be a flop.

“You cannot have majority rule for matters which involve architecture, for the simple reason that democracy does not come into it and the vast majority of people are not qualified to decide.”

I didn’t mean that the majority rule (the main feature of a democracy) can be applied to determine if the proposed project is structurally sound but simply to establish if the people accept it or not. It turns out that most probably the answer is no!

“I would have been far more impressed, for example, if the that stupid petition had been signed by 128 architects rather than 128 ‘artists'”

Of course the Maltese architects won’t do it! If they did and someone asks them for their ideas instead they wouldn’t know from where to start! They only seem able to design flats and they aren’t any good at that either.

You also need to rethink what the word artist means. Since the author of ‘Li tkisser sewwi’ thinks of himself as an artist and gluing fake nails on someone’s fingers is also regarded as an art, I don’t blame the petition signers for considering themselves artists as well. Everyone is an artist these days!