Talk:Manoel Theatre

Palazzo Bonici Annexation

Hi Marcus1234 - thanks for your help editing this page. I've restored the reference to the annexation of Palazzo Bonici because I think it is of interest to several groups of readers, especially architecture buffs, students of Baroque art and architecture, historians, etc. This annexation was the most significant "intervention" / alteration in the original design, layout and use of the theatre.

There is an interesting subtext to the Palazzo Bonici passage. It is the story of how the devastation of WWII radically changed the look, life and vibe of Valletta, with the nobility, upper middle class and monied residents fleeing to the suburbs. The Bonici family was no exception. To my knowledge, the only Valletta residence that family maintained after the War was a grand townhouse on Brittannia (now Melita) street. Perhaps the "evacuation" of Valletta should be stated more explicitly either in this article or in the "Valletta" article.

More importantly, this is also a reference to the wholesale, and mostly unfair expropriation and "requisitioning" of private property by the Labour government of the 1970s. This created an absolute legal nightmare for later governments and for successive generations of the heirs of the landowners, a mess which is still being fought out in Maltese and European courts today. The Manoel Theatre page seemed to me to be an appropriate place to introduce an oblique (indirect) reference to this phenomenon, because the theatre lobby, still today houses a marble plaque, worded solely in Maltese, which glowingly recalls how the government and people of Malta took possession of this noble palace for the greater good and enjoyment of the people. It is a fabulous piece of propaganda which includes a reference to former cabinet minister Alex Sciberras Trigona, and it reads as though there was some Socialist revolution in Malta - which of course, never happened! To my knowledge, the Manoel Theatre is the only (or certainly the most prominent) place in Malta where government attempted to make political capital through the unfair and widespread expropriations. In my article, I have tried refer to this phenomenon in an unbiased, dispassionate manner.

What are your views? Lamato 14:31, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

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