The Manoel Theatre - Paul Xuereb

The Manoel Theatre is the only theatre building still extant
and still regularly used in Malta that dates back to the period
when Malta was ruled by the Order of St John. It was founded by
the Portuguese Grand master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena in 1732 and
was used regularly by the Knights for their amateur performances
of plays and even operas, and also by visiting professional
companies. Although meant for the honest enetrtainment of the
public, it was the young Knights who dominated it either as
performers or as members of the audience. During the siege of the
French occupiers during 1798-1800, the theatre was managed by the
Maltese opera composer Nicolo Isouard and provided the besieged
soldiers with their main entertainment.The passing of Malta to Britain meant that the theatre, now known
as Theatre Royal, remained of importance to the substantial
British garrison and the many British civil servants and
businessmen who spent years in Malta, but the rise of an educated
Maltese middle class also meant that productions in Italian and
then also in Maltese were produced by talented Maltese amateurs.
A good many Maltese authors produced mainly farcical plays in
Maltese or adapted foreign comedies for performance, and the end
of the century saw the birth of the first important Maltese drama
group, directed for many years by M.A. Borg. The Manoel, however,
functioned mostly as an opera theatre, managed by entrepreneurs
who imported singers and dancers to appear in operas by people
like Rossini, Cimarosa, Bellini and Donizetti, and Verdi.The building of a new opera house that opened its doors in 1866
meant that the theatre was no longer Theatre Royal and was now
renamed Manoel Theatre. Except for four seasons when it
temporarily assumed its old functions while the new theatre,
destroyed by fire, was being rebuilt, the Manoel went through
hard times until it began to present seasons of the new musical
genre, operetta, and of the also new British-American musical
theatre. During the 19th century the auditorium was enlarged and
refurbished.During the twentieth century the Manoel was known largely for its
productions of plays in English, mostly presented by the MADC,
founded in 1910 and still active today, but its private owners
used it mostly as a cinema, and after World War II, when the
Royal Opera House was destroyed by bombing, it presented a number
of opera seasons. In the late 1950s the Labour government decided
to bring the theatre back into state ownership and it opened as a
state theatre in December 1960. Since then its programmes have
included many classical music events, a smattering of opera,
dance and much drama, including the major plays of Maltas great
dramatist, Francis Ebejer.