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unusual facts about Royal Opera House, Valletta



1808 in the United Kingdom

20 September - The original Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London is destroyed by fire along with most of the scenery, costumes and scripts.

1990–91 Rangers F.C. season

They lost the tie 4–1 on aggregate after having had beaten Valletta of Malta in the first round.

2007–08 Maltese Premier League

The Malta Football Best Goalkeeper of the Year award for 2008 was won by Andrew Hogg of Valletta.

Aaron Xuereb

Aaron hoped to help Hibernians retain the Maltese Premier League title for the 2009–10, however the quest took some severe setbacks, as Hibernians sold the Maltese Player of the Year Clayton Failla to Sliema Wanderers, and Striker Terence Scerri joined Valletta.

Award of the George Cross to Malta

The Cross and the King's message are today found in the War Museum in Fort Saint Elmo, Valletta.

Brochtorff Circle

It was first discovered by John Otto Bayer in the 1820s and rediscovered in 1964 after Gozitan researcher Joe Attard Tabone examined a painting by Charles Brochtorff in the National Library in Valletta.

Bruce Boyce

He then went on to other roles, including Il conte in Marriage of Figaro under Erich Kleiber at the Royal Opera House; he sang in the English Opera Group, the London Opera Club and continental Europe.

Carmelo Pace

The Pace family abandoned their Valletta home after it was demolished by aerial bombardment, and relocated to the town of Sliema on the opposite shore of Marsamxett Harbour.

Ċensu Tabone

His paternal grandmother, Giuseppina De Gaetani, had settled in Valletta in the mid-19th century from Riposto, Sicily.

Charles Sackville, 2nd Duke of Dorset

After a second grand tour to continental Europe in 1737 and 1738, he returned to England in January 1739 and staged an opera, Angelico e Medoro, with music by Giovanni Battista Pescetti from a libretto by Metastasio at Covent Garden.

Cleavon Frendo

Frendo made his league debut for Valletta on 25 August 2008, coming on as an 76th minute substitute for fellow new recruit Marcelo Peabirú in a 1–1 draw with Sliema Wanderers.

Cyrus Engerer

In a highly polarised society, Cyrus Engerer was raised in a politically mixed environment with his father being a traditional Nationalist supporter from Tas-Sliema, while his mother from Valletta was an activist in Partit Laburista, with her family being ardent Mintoff supporters.

David Harsent

His work in music theatre has involved collaborations with a number of composers (but most often with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the opera Gawain being their most notable collaboration) and has been performed at the Royal Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the Southbank Centre, The Proms, the Wiener Kammeroper, and broadcast on BBC Two, Channel 4 and Trio (USA).

Edward Middleton Barry

The Covent Garden work was hugely influential in Barry’s appointment to design the Royal Opera House in Valletta, Malta (1866), bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.

Elena Langer

Her work has been performed at the Royal Opera House, Zurich Opera, Carnegie Hall, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre.

Félia Litvinne

During the course of the next three decades she appeared at the Academy of Music in New York, at the Paris Opera, at La Scala in Milan, at the Rome Opera, at La Fenice in Venice, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London and at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

Giovanni Francesco Abela

Abela was born in Valletta to Marco Abela and Benarda Vella whose great great grandfather was Barone di Pietra Lunga and whose ancestors ruled Malta on more than one occasion and were part of the royal family of Spain.

Giovanni Martinelli

Cavaradossi in Tosca, was his debut role at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, and for his first American engagement in Philadelphia, in 1913.

Graeme Danby

Graeme Danby (born 23 May 1962 in Consett, County Durham, England) is an operatic bass who has performed at several of the world's leading opera houses, notably the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the English National Opera.

Håkan Hagegård

Hagegård studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and has performed on stages around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the London Royal Opera House, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the Sydney Opera House, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera (Così fan tutte conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt), and the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.

High House, Purfleet

The Royal Opera House opened the Bob and Tamar Manoukian Production Workshop, a scene-making facility for their opera and ballet productions on the High House site in December 2010.

HMS LST 3002

Now seaworthy again, but still showing signs of injury, in July 1946 she sailed to Dockyard Creek, Valletta Harbour, Malta to complete the repairs in dry dock.

Ian Riches

The task given to 2 Commando Brigade was to clear the German defences on the eastern side of Lake Comacchio up to the line of the Valletta canal.

Jeff Rich

He attended school in Hackney at Upton House Comprehensive, and whilst there he appeared in the opera Tosca at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Jesmond Zerafa

Jesmond led Qormi into the 2009–10 season, again making some shrewd acquisitions along the way, Joseph Farrugia’s loan move was made permanent, and again Valletta duo Massimo Grima and Keith Fenech’s season long loan deals were extended for another season.

LGBT rights in Malta

There are a few gay clubs including 'Tom Bar', situated in Floriana, which is the oldest gay club in Malta, and 'Monaliza' in Paceville and Valletta.

Liudmyla Monastyrska

In 2011, she appeared at Covent Garden, where she successfully stepped in for Micaela Carosi as Aida early in the season, with Fabio Luisi as the conductor.

Lollie Alexi Devereaux

Lollie Alexi Devereaux (born October 31, 1981) is a Vancouver, BC based French actress, opera singer, dancer and writer best known for her work with L’Opéra de la Bastille (Bastille Opera) (Paris, France) and Royal Opera House (London, UK).

Mark Morris

He has worked extensively in opera, directing and choreographing productions for the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, English National Opera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, among others.

Miles Jacobson

Born in 1971 and raised in Watford, Jacobson spent more time on music than education when at school, singing or playing at the Royal Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican and St Martin-in-the-Fields during this time.

MT explosive motorboat

On 26 July 1941, two human torpedoes (Maiale) and ten MAS boats (including six MTs) launched an unsuccessful attack on the British naval base at Valletta, Malta.

Nicholas Thomas Dall

He painted some excellent scenes for Covent Garden Theatre, and his engagements in that branch of art prevented him from painting many pictures.

Nikolai Tcherepnin

He conducted performances with the Ballets Russes in Berlin, Monte Carlo, Paris, Rome, and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London.

Nina Silaeva

# 2011 — the Personal exhibition of works in Russian center of a science and culture on Malte in Vallette, July 2011

Peach Melba

In 1892, Nellie Melba was performing in Wagner's opera Lohengrin at Covent Garden.

Raphael Cotoner

It was during Raphael's tenure as Grand Master that the Italian Baroque artist Mattia Preti started work in Valletta's St. John's Co-Cathedral.

Richard Verreau

He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in London, as the Duke in Rigoletto, in 1957, other roles there included: Alfredo in La traviata, Rodolfo in La bohème, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Malta

There are two cathedrals in the diocese: The Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Paul's, in Mdina, and St. John's Co-Cathedral, located in Valletta.

Royal Opera House, Valletta

The proposal was ostensibly shelved until after the general elections of 2008 and on 1 December 2008, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi revived the proposal with a budget of €80 million.

Siġġiewi

The titular painting in the church is by the artist Mattia Preti, 'Il calabrese', who was also responsible for the painting on the vault of St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

Sir Graham Hamond, 2nd Baronet

He was made a Post-Captain on 30 November, and in the following year, when in command of HMS Champion (24), was at the blockade of Malta, where he occasionally served on shore at the siege of Valletta.

Spencer Monument

His body was, however, kept in quarantine at Lazaretto for the full 40 days required, and his body was buried at the Bastion of Saint Michael in Valletta on 12 December.

Štefan Margita

His career has also taken him to the stages of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi, the Dallas Opera, the Teatro Real, Oper Frankfurt, Theater Basel, the Teatro di San Carlo, the Theatro Municipal in São Paulo, and the New National Theatre Tokyo among others.

Stephen Courtauld

Courtauld was financial director of Ealing Studios, a trustee of the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, and provided financial support for the Courtauld Galleries in Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum.

The Sleeping Lady

This figurine is held in the Museum of Archaeology, in Valletta, Malta.

Turandot Suite

It was made into a full-colour feature film with the same name by Joseph Menchen and Michel Carré with some of the original named cast, which premièred at Covent Garden with a continuous symphonic score by Engelbert Humperdinck on 21 December 1912.

Um El Faroud

She occupied the dock in the harbor of Valletta for three years until it was decided that the best option to utilize her remaining value was to tow her to sea and scuttle her as an artificial reef in 1998.


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