In the centre of Malta’s capital city, Valletta, is the site of the Royal Opera House – once a landmark building designed by British architect Edward Middleton Barry (best known for designing Covent Garden Theatre). From its opening in 1866 it was the cultural centre of Malta until 1942, when it suffered extensive damage. Subsequent attempts to reconstruct the site met without success.

In 2008, architect Renzo Piano submitted plans for an open-air venue, sympathetically set among the ruins of the original Opera House. Despite debate over the design, the venue was inaugurated as the Pjazza Teatru Rjal (Royal Theatre Square), and has transformed the site into a functioning venue, while preserving the remains of the original neoclassical building.

In keeping with the reconstruction, it was essential that the installation of any sound reinforcement system be discreet, yet able to deliver high-quality audio to an outdoor audience.

Greek A/V contractor Telmaco was chosen to supply and install a suitable audio system: ‘We had already been involved in what is referred to as the City Gate Project, which is a long-term strategy to redevelop key parts of the city,’ explains Project Manager, George Regginiotis. ‘But there was an international tendering process for this particular installation and it was our design of a d&b audiotechnik loudspeaker system that won the day. Telmaco enjoys a reputation for quality of service and consistency, and together with the security of excellent sound reinforcement that comes with the d&b audiotechnik brand, we successfully secured the contract.

‘Although our first involvement was back in the summer of 2012,’ he continues, ‘due to the vagaries of the project, our most challenging issue was the very tight timeframe for installing the system for the inaugural performance of the European Union Youth Orchestra. The orchestra is made up of young musicians from 28 countries, and this was their first public performance – a complex audio event by anyone’s standards.

‘The final design had to negotiate the fact that this is an outdoor venue that is in a very built up and densely populated area. Not only that, but a good deal of the ruins that the venue sits within are reinforced with a curtain of steel masts and screens which throw up all sort of acoustic challenges not usually associated with an outdoor installation. The final design comprised of two line arrays, stage left and right made up of a combination of V8 and V12 loudspeakers, supported by V-Subs and driven by D12 amplifiers. In the centre we hung a further array of V-Series loudspeakers but without the V-Subs. The extraordinary versatility of the V-Series is able to cope with the very different types of performance that will take place here: speech, live music of all sorts and playback, the V-Series does it all. We used some of those brilliant little E8 boxes as a front fill and some Q7 boxes for different purposes such as image shift, side fill and some mobile applications.’

In August, more than 130 young musicians aged between 14 and 24 took to the stage and, under the baton of conductor Krzysztof Urbanski and Alexander Romanovsky on the piano performed Ravel’s Boléro, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition to great acclaim. After languishing for more than 70 years as a bombed-out ruin that symbolised European division, the site of the Royal Opera House is a new symbol of international cooperation and harmony.

More: www.telmaco.gr/en