5

The Royal Opera House

During the last world war it was severely damaged and since then pulled down and was never rebuilt. The works at the Valletta Opera House was commenced in 1860 with Edward Middleton Barry, as architect, few metres away from the main city gate. The Opera House was officially opened in 1866 with the splendid glittering performance of Bellini’s I Puritani. Seven years later the interior was gutted by a disastrous fire. However, the rebuilding followed the original design and Valletta had for many years a fine, spacious auditorium on the classical model with five tier of boxes encircling the seating in the stalls.