The next year, the Italian impresario Luigi Cantoni was given permitted to bring over an Italian Opera Company to perform at the Radio City and during the next ten years there were various opera seasons by Italian Opera Companies and some 37 different operas were performed. The 1947 - 1948 season saw no operas performed by Maltese amateur singers and in a way this was better for many of them went overseas to try their luck.ġ948 was the year of the Operetta with the Italian Operetta Company Citta di Milano coming to Malta presenting Madame di Tebe, Primrosa, La danza delle Libellule, Il paese dei Campanelli, Scugnizza, and La Donna Perduta. The 1946 - 1947 season saw the amalgamation of the three Maltese opera companies giving 17 operas among which La Sonnambula, Faust, Don Pasquale, Andrea Chenier, L'Amico Fritz, Manon Lescaut, and La Favorita being new for the theatre. The theatre very soon became a popular venue for opera, operetta, variety concerts, drama and carnival balls. Joe Bezzina, George Ross, Anthony Vella, Walter Cachia, Emanuel Zammit Ross and Frank Bonello. Some others did the rounds of Maltese festas both inside and outside the parish churches. The singers were all Maltese and were Mary La Rosa, Aida Sammut, Alice Tonna, Mary Grima, Gemma Fsadni, Jane Buttigieg de Piro, Joe Zammit Harrison, Arthur Galea, Lino Farrugia, Anthony Cini, Paul Asciak who progressed to international fame. Next year, the repertoire consisted of 12 operas which were: Rigoletto, Tosca, Carmen, Fedora, Madame Butterfly, Werther, La Boheme, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, I Pagliacci, Il Matrimonio Segreto and L'Elisir d'Amore. The first operatic presentation was Cavalleria Rusticana organized by an Maltese Amateur Theatrical Company on the 22nd February 1945.Īfter that came Lucia di Lamermoor, La Boheme, La Traviata and I Pagliacci. From its stage many a Maltese singer launched an opera career. It was well suited for the staging of operas, especially after the Royal Opera House in Valletta was bombed, serving its purpose for around twenty years. It was built by Mr Charles Schembri with an investment of $100.000 on the Ħamrun main road, a few hundred yards west of Blata l-Bajda. The Radio City Opera House was inaugurated with a grand carnival dance just as the Second World War ended.
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