Opera House roof is not the answer

During the Budget speech a fortnight ago, the Minister for Finance, Edward Scicluna, pulled a rabbit out of the hat by announcing that a possible revision of the current opera house site might be considered in the light of responses to a consultation process which is now under way. Given the chequered history of this site over the last 77 years since it was heavily bombed during the Second World War and the inability of successive administrations to agree on what should happen to it, this promises to be an interesting discussion. When Renzo Piano was asked to include the open-air theatre, he envisaged it as part of a social space: when events were not being held there it would function as an open pjazza. It also served to mitigate the strong backlash that Lawrence Gonzi was facing from a significant body of public opinion which viewed the building of the new parliament at the entrance to Valletta as an insult. They wished to see the old Royal Opera House re-built on the site. Time has proved a great healer and the whole City Gate site – including the parliament, which is now admired as an outstanding, indeed ‘iconic’, building which merges the new with the old; the Triton...