Valletta International Baroque Festival 2013
Longstanding patron of the Arts, The Phoenicia Hotel, are supporting the Valletta International Baroque Festival which will be held from 9 to 26 January 2013, preparing the way to the 2018 European Capital City of Culture event which will focus on Valletta. As every visitor to the Maltese Islands knows, Malta is a baroque country and Valletta is its baroque capital. The Maltese culture is steeped in baroque and with a festa practically every week the island has a baroque event exploding overhead in dazzling ways.
Grand Master Vilhena built the Manoel Theatre in a bid to reconcile the Knights and the Maltese, likewise this baroque festival will be a cultural offering not just to visitors but also to the Maltese. The Manoel Theatre is the 13th oldest theatre in Europe but while its contemporaries, such as the Schonbrunn in Vienna and the Bayreuth theatre are considered to be national treasures and used very sparingly, the Manoel is used around the clock for artistic events that range from tango, flamenco, pantomimes, concerts and plays. This new festival will bring to Malta some of the foremost artists of the baroque period in Europe. Its focus will be the Manoel Theatre but it will use other baroque vanues in Valletta, from St John’s Co-Cathedral to the Jesuits’ church, to the newly-restored St Catherine’s, to Tal-Pilar church, some of the Knights’ Auberges as well as the Museum of Fine Arts. Some of the world's best Baroque ensembles and soloists will perform at the Valletta International Baroque Festival which will help to fill over 6000 available seats for concerts, operas, choirs and performances all around the capital city over two-and-a-half weeks of cultural entertainment of the highest order.
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The festival will showcase the leading ensembles and soloists specialised in Baroque music, including world-class artists such as Emma Kirby, a stunning performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons by Michael Laus, Carmine Lauri and Emanuela Buta at The President’s Palace, as well as performances by vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Orchestra of The Age of The Enlightenment, New Century Baroque Orchestra, Malta Philarmonic Orchestra and Cappella Sanctae Catharinae, amongst others, and will culminate on January 26 with a spectacular Baroque Ball. |
Many of the performances will be broadcast on the satellite TV channel ‘Mezzo’, and the event has already received widespread coverage in Music Magazine. Dozens of concerts will be held over sixteen days along with a series of supporting events focusing on Baroque music and performance. Along with the festival's high artistic credentials the event will also promote the richness of Valletta's cultural monuments and the whole capital city as a unique architectural treasure.
An innovation to the Baroque Festival format in Valletta is Baroque Sundays which will consist of a number of baroque themed performances and events in various prestigious venues around Valletta, open to the public and addressing all the family. More information about experiencing the pleasure of another era can be found at http://www.vallettabaroquefestival.com.mt/
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