Theatre spaces in Baroque Malta

Abstract

In the 16th century when the Order of St John became rulers of Malta the only known forms of theatre-making in this country were the qarcilla and the qarinza, both of them simple and somewhat primitive dramatic actions performed in the open air, in the streets of towns and villages. So far as is known there were no indoor places for theatre-making. By the early 17th century, when the effects of the Great Siege had weakened, however, the Order had truly settled in. When the pleasure-loving Antoine de Paule was Grandmaster, the Italian knights, coming from states in which theatre-making was strongly established, and the new genre of opera had fired the enthusiasm of the middle and upper classes and led to the building of new theatre buildings, decided they should do something about theatre themselves. This they did by inviting over to Malta companies of actors and singers to perform in the large hall of their Auberge, the building now housing MUZA, in what is now Triq il-Merkanti, and to stage their own productions on a stage they built in or before 1631, the year in which one of the new operas was performed probably by visiting professional singers.