Are we expected to believe this? The PM, who hates music, just couldn’t be fagged to attend yet another concert.
The prime minister has said that he wasn’t at the inaugural concert at the Valletta open theatre because he “disagrees with it being roofless”.
In this, he uses the term deployed by the more idiotic members of our society, even those who lay claim to great education, by failing to differentiate between a purpose-built open theatre and a ‘roofless’ one. This is tantamount to saying that the great theatres of ancient Greece and Rome were ‘roofless’ because somebody didn’t want to put a lid on them.
Saying ‘roofless’ makes you ignorant, not smart (take note of this, Kitten from Malta).
Muscat is anything but a man of principle, as his behaviour has demonstrated over the years. So if he expects us to believe that he wasn’t at the ceremony because he disagrees with the theatre, he’s expecting too much.
The man just couldn’t be arsed to spend yet another evening glued to a front-row seat spending hours listening to music he doesn’t like and understand.
His friends Robert Musumeci, Consuelo Herrera, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Jesmond & Karen Mugliett left during the intermission and did not return to their seats, turning up only for the VIP cocktails afterwards. The prime minister and his wife have no such option, so they stayed away altogether.
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Crassness at its worst.
Could have also been a way of slighting Jose Herrera…
Fuq il-fosos roofless u xorta mar. Imma hemmhekk kantat bintu, allura mhux talli mmorru, talli naghmlu tweet ukoll.
Another foot stamping episode then. Or maybe he didn’t want to sit near Hose?
Forsi marru l-festa jithalltu man-nies.
Even the Globe Theatre, of Shakespeare fame, was an open-air amphitheater. And that was in dreary London. Why they should have an issue with it here, where it rains for 10 days out of a whole 365 is beyond me.
A boring individual like Joseph Muscat cannot possibly love music – never in a million years.
Not even a bit of Wagner?
Norman Lowell is going to be upset.
That is exactly what I thought when I read the report.
As if these goons would sit still for a couple of hours listening to classical music.
Also, a comment from someone who was there: although Josè Herrera was looking decent enough, his ‘speech’ both in English and Maltese was totally sub-standard.
Did you expect anything better from Jose Herrera?
I really would like to know what was said in the meeting Joseph Muscat had with Prof. Arch. Renzo Piano. I bet that, most probably, Prof. Piano asked for double the price to alter the project’s designs. That is why Joseph Muscat came empty-handed and said nothing of substance about the meeting.
Muscat can never say anything of substance, least of all about a cutural project. His visit to Renzo Piano was just a stunt. Muscat is so impressed with himself being Prime Minister he thinks that others look at him the same way and that all criticism is due to jealousy (ahem).
Why not say it out loud? Joseph Muscat is just the archetypical hamallu from the back of beyond. The only ‘culture’ he’d have experienced are village feasts, carnivals and perhaps a few makjetti at the Istitut Kattoliku.
Oh, he’s all of that, of course. I took as read that anyone would know that much.
It’s less obvious that, when he visited Piano in Paris, Muscat thought Piano would feel honoured and thrilled to meet him, and would scramble and grovel to accommodate his wishes.
I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall.
Baxxter, the only ‘culture’ that Muscat ever experienced were those 1970s and 1980s Mintoff meetings to which his grandmother used to take him.
You’re right, but you’re also missing the point. Joseph Muscat isn’t some freak. He’s perfectly average by in Malta. His sort of culture – now given the Xarabank stamp of approval – is the average Maltese man’s culture.
Culture. Ha! On a speck of rock on the edge of Europe.
Who ARE we kidding?
We all now know what joe muscat is made of… he refuses to attend the inaugural concert at the Valletta open theatre and at the same time I have to digest the fact that he will be presiding the EU in 2017. Even Europe will be at his own mercy. God help us all.
Bad excuse Joe Muscat. You’re the PM since last March. Ample time to postpone the whole thing and build your silly preferred “roof”. Now we get this cry-baby attitude that you disagree with the concept..
Where are the boundaries of this thought? Why would you give open-air mass meetings where there was no roof above your head if you “disagree with the concept”?
Go on making a fool of yourself.
Also, on receiving the invitation, why didn’t you publicly give up your seat tickets to people who would have gladly listened to the music?
Europe is littered with fully functional open-air theatres Joey. You just haven’t got the culture to appreciate that.
Those open theatre were not built today. For a calender of the cultural events taking place in Europe, check the net! These events don’t take place all year.
I don’t imagine the prime minister has ever attended concerts in open air theatres in Greece or Italy. The man has no idea.
We are not living in Roman or Greek times and the spectacles held in arenas or theatres were not the same (it’s not as if we’re going to have water battles in Valletta or some Greek tragedy accompanied by half a score of young male singers), the technology was not the same, population density (alias noise) was not the same, audience expectancies are not the same…
In Trafalgar Square, the Mayor hosts open air opera on screen (transmissions from ROH) on certain summer evenings. Needless to say – the sound come out of massive sound systems which would be inappropriate for acoustic classical music or theatre. However, the speakers are drowned by noise pollution. Malta is not London but Malta is not some peaceful, meditative Provencal location either. It is one of the nosiest place on earth and even more so in summer.
Juxtaposing different architectural styles is not a problem either. Conversion and improvements of old building conversions/improvements are common too (see the works by architect Jean Nouvel).
The main problems with this project is that it simply doesn’t work and is ghastly. It simply looks like a tombola venue. It is does not function because you have no control on the weather, you can’t control sound in an open space (the way rock concerts ‘control’ sound in open air spaces is by increasing the decibels to mask acoustic parasites) and so forth.
Maybe, after all , the Gahan Malti probably got what he deserves.
Have you been there or are you just talking about the pictures of Jose Herrera wishing he were elsewhere?
Joe, many orchestras still perform in many contemporary amphitheaters around the world. I’m by no means an expert on drama, but why on earth can’t you stage anything from Beckett to Stoppard at the Valletta theater? I’d find it hard to believe Piano didn’t consider acoustics.
Marlowe, Piano worked on a brief and a very limited budget. You can’t do much about acoustics in an open air venue. Fill a bottle with gas and open it. It’s the same.
This venue can be used for some drama that requires limited staging but then, why on earth did they bother. You can’t do a proper orchestral concert unless ‘at least’ you have an acoustic dome covering the orchestra to improve the sound a bit (this is a must for outdoor concert as it helps to contain and diffuse the sound). That’s how it’s done when there are events in parks and open air venues in the civilised worked
They should either have built a fully functional venue or else pulled the whole thing down and made a bigger square..
La Redoute, I’m not interested in Herrera, Muscat, Busuttil or any local figure. Herrera knows absolutely zilch about the arts.
[Daphne – ‘local’: they’re Maltese, not ‘local’.]
Marlowe, open air cultural events take place only in summer (regardless whether it’s Berlin, London, Paris, Provence, Salzburg, Edinburgh…).
[Daphne – Wrong. They don’t.]
Daphne, see when the big open-air festivals take place including those in sunny places (Orange, Aix en Provence, Arena di Verona…). I’m not talking about St George’s day events, carnival or some folk group playing at a Liege market!
[Daphne – With your reasoning, Joe, there would be no football matches in winter. But that’s exactly when they take place. You just wrap up. And by your reasoning, too, we shouldn’t have a theatre with a roof, because it can’t be used in a Maltese summer – too stuffy, and too costly to keep air-conditioned.]
Oh yes you can, ever heard of directional speakers?
You can have two sitting next to each other and only one gets to listen.
Honestly, do your really think Piano would have accepted?
As for function, the place has already acquired metafunction; Muscat refused to attend.
Good, the place’s beyond him.
Brilliant. The scourge of labourites. Like this comment board, but with an actual physical location.
My work brings me in contact with a considerable number of highly educated persons from all over the world. I have still to meet one of them who was critical of the Piano’s project – actually all were fascinated how Piano could integrate such a building with the surrounding.
One thing is for certain, most were critical about those flats built by the 1970s Labour government just facing the new parliament building. If I had to criticise the previous administration on this issue is the fact that they did not remove these eyesores.
http://youtu.be/ChHjgWJ8IJ0
Where is the acoustic dome…so even Bocelli is an amateur.
http://youtu.be/P8-1YR2j9sA
And an open air concert in Trafalgar Square by other amateurs. But then again you are the expert Joe.
Let’s face it, you’d count the number of politicians who’ve attended a world-class concert abroad (the local orchestra is semi-professional at the most).
and you’d understand why Malta is in such a state.
So you expect Joseph Muscat to attend a concert of classical music only if it is of world-class standard, (and obviously held in roofed there)? U hallina, Guz, trid?
A Super One journalist, judging by the news and programmes churned out from that station, would hardly be interested in a concert of classical music, or any art form for that matter.
I am convinced, as Daphne says, that he simply couldn’t “be arsed … to spend hours listening to music he doesn’t like and understand.”
As to the ‘roofless’ part of the argument everybody knows these exist in all major European (and not only) countries. The two types of theatre are intended to serve different, but with overlapping, functions.
Last week, to spite Joseph Muscat, Mr Herrera’s said that there will be no modifications to Renzo Piano’s designs. In return, Joseph Muscat stamped his feet and didn’t go.
Let’s assume that he really did not go to the inauguration of the theatre because he disagrees with it being “roofless”. Can we assume from this that he will not be attending EU summits etc. because he does not agree with the EU either and will only be attending Partnership summits?
This reminds me of when Joseph Muscat crassly refused an invitation to the prime minister’s farewell state dinner for Eddie Fenech Adami, saying he hates that sort of thing and sending Charles Mangion instead (as though invitations of that nature are transferable).
That should have been sufficient warning, but no.
Muscat continues to take positions which put him on the wrong side of history. The Piano project will remain a landmark for many years to come. Muscat will be forgotten.
Maybe in five years’ time, with hindsight…
Another oppurtunity to rebuild the opera theatre or at least a cultural centre has againt been lost. Many artists and intellectuals (as the late Rev Prof Serracino Inglott and Joseph Calleja), amongst others, had opposed this roofless theatre. Al least there is now some sort of retractable roof. ww.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100216/local/artists-oppose-decision-to-retain-roofless-theatre.294398
I may be wrong but I think the Mediterranean Conference is not much used. It is suited I think a as seat for Parliament, or else for concerts, exhibtions, conferences and other cultural activities.
David, go back to school or go home or both. You probably think a ‘concert’ is a ‘gig’, like the one by your mates.
Judging by Joseph’s designs and details of his secret agreement with the Chinese being uncovered in stages, the MCC would be an excellent venue.
http://english.people.com.cn/90785/8018361.html
Imma il-Papa hekk ghamel. Allura jien le?
Maybe if a rendition of the Korean version of ‘Ma taghmlu xejn mal-Perit Mintoff’ was on the running order, he would have attended and made sure that everyone present clapped from start to finish!