Narrow corridors, barely a metre wide, are the first surprise inside the Manoel Theatre. The second is the sound. In the small oval hall, people say you can hear the conductor turn a page, and even if that is an exaggeration, it tells you how intimate the space feels.
A theatre for the Knights
Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena paid for the theatre, which was designed by Romano Carapecchia and built by Francesco Zerafa and Antonio Azzopardi. Building started in 1731, and on 9 January 1732 the first play was performed, Scipione Maffei’s classical tragedy Merope. For a building of this kind the speed was remarkable.
Over the entrance is a Latin motto, “Ad honesta populi oblectationem”, meaning for the honest recreation of the people. Entertainment for the knights was meant to be respectable as well as grand.
Names and changes
The theatre was first the Teatro Pubblico, then the Teatro Reale, and in 1873 it took the name it holds today in honour of its founder. The outside looks strict and formal, a plain façade in the severe style of Valletta, and gives little hint of the carved interior.
During the British period a separate opera house was built and the Manoel lost its importance. It was even sold, and for a time part of it served as a refuge for the homeless. In the Second World War the opera house was destroyed and the Manoel was bought back by the government, restored and given back its status as the national theatre.
The auditorium
The hall is oval and Baroque, richly carved, with tiers of boxes around the stage. It holds about 600 seats. For people used to large modern venues it is a small, warm room where nobody sits far from the performers.
On a tour you see it empty, which lets you look at the carving without distraction. If you can see a performance, do. The acoustics were praised early and are the main reason to see something staged here rather than only visit.
Backstage and the theatre museum
Guided tours cover a small museum devoted to the history of theatre in Malta. You can look at costumes from different periods and see the wheel that raises and lowers the curtain, a plain wooden mechanism that reveals how much physical work lay behind a performance.
Daily tours are the usual way to see these rooms, and the guides add detail that the labels leave out. Tours work around rehearsals, so the timetable changes from day to day.
What is on stage
Today the Manoel is the centre of Maltese cultural life in the capital. Opera, operetta, drama, concerts and festivals take place here, along with literary and poetry evenings and programmes for children. A Christmas pantomime is staged every year.
If you plan an evening there, book ahead through the theatre, and dress smartly; the old house suits a jacket more than shorts.
Seeing it as an audience member
A visit on a tour tells you what the building looks like, and a performance tells you what it was built for. Seats in the boxes give a good view of the stage and the room, while the stalls put you closer to the singers. For a first evening, a chamber concert or a smaller opera production suits the space better than a large-scale event, since the hall favours voices and strings over volume.
Arrive early. The corridors are narrow, the foyer is small, and the crowd flows slowly. The delay is part of the experience of an eighteenth-century house, and it gives you time to look at the walls.
Around the theatre
The theatre sits on Old Theatre Street, close to the Main Guard, the Palace Armoury and the Anglican cathedral of St Paul. A morning tour fits easily with the Armoury, and the three together give a rounded picture of Valletta in the age of the Knights.
Opening is short on Saturdays and the theatre is closed on Sundays and public holidays, so schedule the tour for a weekday if you can. Finish with a coffee in a nearby square, and if there is a performance that evening, look at the programme before you leave.
