My theory of music exam was fast approaching. Reading through my notes, it dawned on me that Giacomo Puccini never had the opportunity to enjoy performances of his own Turandot.
He died in 1924, leaving an incomplete manuscript. Not even a teenager, it was with surprise that I realised that Puccini’s masterpiece, a mainstay within the operatic world up to this very day, was thereafter posthumously completely by another composer, Franco Alfano.
Little did I know that many moons later, those Turandot thoughts would bounce back into my very own life.
Dad – Maestro Joseph Vella – passed away six years ago in 2018 while composing his very first opera – Valeriana – following a distinguished musical career as a composer, conductor, musicologist and university professor.
Over the years, he composed more than 150 classified works ranging from concertos to symphonies, oratorios and song cycles, to name a few, and his music was performed all over the world.
He collaborated with many established international artists, but also gladly expressed his own music via the evocative poetic words of established giants within the Maltese literature scene, the likes of Anton Buttigieg, Oliver Friggieri and Ġorġ Pisani, to name a few.
The operatic project had been on his mind for quite some time, but it kept getting postponed, always sidelined by new assignments. Until he finally sat down with Valeriana librettist Vince Vella, agreed on the main parameters, and set it all in motion.
Those who knew him well describe a Maestro Vella characteristically full of energy as this latest major project of his unfolded. Maestro Joseph Debrincat, a fellow Gozitan, recalls “undoubted excitement every time Maestro Vella spoke to me about Valeriana, as I urged him to develop his musical ideas further now that he had found a libretto which suited his musical genius”.
And so it was. The music flourished, the ball started rolling. Until it hit a wall.
Dad’s passing was totally unexpected. It brought grief, shock and incredulity, but also reflection upon staring at that voluminous manuscript in his study
Dad’s passing was totally unexpected. It brought grief, shock and incredulity, but also reflection upon staring at that voluminous manuscript in his study.
Another opera, this time one that my own dad had composed and really had at heart, lay incomplete at home. That is when Turandot related childhood memories bounced back. It took little time however for my mother Nathalie, brother Nikki and myself to decide that the project could not be abandoned. An opera by Malta’s leading contemporary composer would be a fitting culmination to his prolific career and would have also undoubtedly enriched Malta’s musical heritage.
Valeriana needed completion, just like the Turandot.
Festivals Malta were immediately receptive to the idea, and together we embarked on a cultural journey which also included the production in 2022 of two other major Vella works. We chose Il-Belt Rebbieħa and Rewwixta, circa one-hour long oratorios, since they had lay dormant for nearly 30 years after being premiered by Maestro Vella himself in the 1990s.
Valeriana will now be the crown jewel within this cultural journey. Completed by Maestro Christopher Muscat, a former student of my dad’s and himself an established composer, Malta’s cultural community can look forward to an important new musical gem. The opera Valeriana will be premiered on Saturday, May 4 at the evocative Astra Theatre, where Maestro Vella spent nearly 50 years as musical director, conducting countless operas too. Including Turandot!
In February 2019, I penned an article on Times of Malta to mark the first anniversary of his passing, remarking that although Maestro Vella was physically not with us any longer, his music will live on beyond the horizon.
Family Vella’s efforts thereafter have not been in vain, and thanks to Festivals Malta’s collaboration, Maestro Vella’s final major work will now see the light of the day, six years after his demise.
Valeriana, indeed, will enrich his official catalogue of works. Here comes Opus 155, Maestro Vella’s final creation!
Alan Vella