THEATRE

Ellie, il-Musical

A flower-powered new musical performed in Maltese and English will premiere at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta on June 30 and July 1 and between July 4 and 8.

Based on an idea by creative producer Antoine Farrugia and written by Simon Bartolo, Ellie, il-Musical is set in Malta in the 1960s and 1970s.

The story follows four friends in Malta who compete against each other in an annual event at the Yellow Music Club for the best covers of songs from The Beatles’ catalogue.

The cast includes Jeremy Grech, Clare Agius, Alex Portelli, Patrick Vella, Christine Francalanza, Mariah Mangion and Eliza Aquilina.

Alongside Josette Ciappara as director, the show’s creative team also includes choreographer Warren Bonello, vocal coach Sean Borg and musical director Elton Zarb.

For tickets, visit teatrumanoel.com.mt.

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ARTS

Victoria International Arts Festival

The month-long festival continues on June 26 with a pianoforte trio (clarinet, violoncello and piano) performing at the Aula Mgr G. Farrugia in Victoria.

The Waldstein Piano Quartet (violin, viola, violoncello and piano) will perform at the same hall on June 27 and The Martinu Quartet (violin, viola, violoncello) will give a recital at St Francis church, on June 28.

Local musicians Philip Attard (saxophone) and Christine Zerafa (piano) will perform at the Aula Mgr G. Farrugia on June 29, and pianists Joanne Camilleri and Gabi Sultana will play at the same venue on June 30.

July 1 will see a duo made up of Kristian Schembri (percussion) and Aiveen Gallagher (viola) performing at St Francis church on July 1.

All performances start at 8pm. The festival runs until July 10 and all events are free of charge. For more information, visit viaf.org.mt.

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MUSIC

Tales of Our Times

The Malta Society of Arts is hosting a concert by pianist and composer Chris Jarrett, on June 27, at 8pm.

For more information and tickets, click here. For more information about Jarrett, visit www.chrisjarrett.de/index.php/en/.

A Gift of Glory Organ Concert

The St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation is hosting an organ concert by Christian Alejandro Almada on June 27 at 7pm.

Almada is the organist at the papal basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.

This will be the last event organised by the foundation with the tapestries on display at St John’s Co-Cathedral.

Doors open at 6.30pm. Entrance is free of charge but reservation is required here.

Opera in the Capital – The Three Tenors

Nico Darmanin, Cliff Zammit Stevens and Alan Sciberras are performing in an evening of world-famous operatic tunes in St George’s Square, Valletta, on June 28.

This is the third concert in the series organised by the Valletta Cultural Agency. This year the tenor will be joined on stage by Chiara and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.

For tickets, visit showshappening.com.

Midsummer Classics

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra is taking over the Malta National Park Amphiteatre in Ta’ Qali for an open-air concert on July 1 at 9pm.

The evening’s programme features a bonanza of works by Maltese composers including Nani, Pace, Camilleri and Vella. Grieg's timeless and astounding Peer Gynt Suite will also be performed.

Tickets are available from showshappening.com.

Tiffin Girls' School Senior Choir Malta tour

The senior choir of Tiffin Girls’ School, a girls’ selective school in Kingston upon Thames, Southwest London, England, is performing in Malta from July 1 to 3.

The Tiffin name is borrowed from Thomas and John Tiffin, prosperous brewers in the early 17th century, who left money in their wills for the education of the poor.

Their Malta tour will be their first foreign tour since their visits to Bruges and Venice in 2019.

The choir will perform at Our Lady of Fair Havens and St Dominic basilica in Valletta on July 1 at 7pm; at St Margaret parish church, Sannat, on July 2 at 7.45pm; and at Our Lady of Sorrows parish church, St Paul’s Bay, on July 3 at 6.45pm. Entrance to the recitals will be free.

Charles Buttigieg in Concert

Baritone Charles Buttigieg is presenting another edition of his annual evening of opera and musical theatre classics in the square of Santa Luċija, Gozo, on July 1.

He will perform together with The X-Factor Malta 2019 winner Michela Pace, sopranos Nicola Said and Marouska Attard, and the SCJ Children’s Choir, all under the musical direction of Mark Gauci.

Admission is free, but seats are limited. Reservations can be made here.

The concert is being organised in collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Directorate, Ministry for Gozo. 

FILM

Mediterrane Film Festival

The Mediterrane Film Festival, a new annual convention focused on film and creativity, kicked off on June 25 and runs until June 30.

The festival is aimed at bringing together MED9 countries (Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Croatia) for collaboration on future film projects and create more opportunities with other European partners, including the UK.

There will be workshops, panel discussions, an education conference, a number of masterclasses with international stars such as actors Eric Bana (Hulk, Gladiator, Star Trek) and Jared Harris (Mad Men, The Crown, Mr Deeds), a live book show with British comedian and TV personality David Walliams in aid of Puttinu Cares and film screenings.

Other personalities in attendance include actors Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders, The Mummy, Tag), Darko Perić (La Casa de Papel, better known as Money Heist), Joaquim De Almeida (Queen of the South, Fast Five) and Natasha McElhone (The Truman Show, The Crown, Carmen). 

Most events will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre with film screenings at Spazju Kreattiv and the Embassy Cinemas, all in Valletta.

For a full schedule of events, visit mediterrane.com or the festival’s Facebook page.

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DANCE

Luxuria

The Barcelona Flamenco Ballet will present the show Luxuria at Pjazza Teatru Rjal in Valletta on June 28 and 29 at 8.30pm.

Tickets from ticketline.com.mt. For more information about the dance group, visit barcelonaflamencoballet.com.

MISCELLANEOUS

Mnarja 2023

The traditional feast celebrating the feast of St Peter and St Paul is being held on a grander scale this year. It opened on June 25 and runs until June 29.

Activities until June 27 mainly include animal competitions taking place at Buskett Gardens. The official celebrations will then kick off on June 28 at 5pm with a parade of carts and karrozzini and band marches from Saqqajja in Rabat to Buskett.

At Buskett, there will be various exhibitions of fruit and vegetables, of poultry and game birds and traditional crafts until late. There will also be traditional games, song and dance and food stalls. Ta' Verna Folk Group and Kantera will perform from 7.30 to 11.30pm.

The competition winners will be announced at the end of the festival on June 29, between 1 and 2pm. Ta' Verna Folk Group will perfrom on the day from 10 to 11.30am.

For a detailed schedule of events, visit the official page of Malta’s Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights, Agrikoltura.

Malta Trade Fair

The Malta Trade Fair is back at the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre in Ta’ Qali until July 2.

The 64th edition offers a platform for over 200 local and international vendors. There is free parking, food, music and a children’s area.Visitors may also win up to €1,000 in cash daily.

The fair is open in the evenings from 6.30 to 11.30pm.

Life is Bearable at Times…

The Embassy of Poland together and Inizjamed are celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of the Polish poetess Wisława Szymborska, a Nobel laureate in literature and known as La Grande Dame of world poetry.

A documentary film about the poetess, titled Life is Bearable At Times… directed by Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska, will be screened at the Valletta Design Cluster on June 30 at 7pm.

It will be followed by a discussion with Antoine Cassar, who translated Szymborska’s poetry book into Maltese: Moment/Waqt, Glen Calleja, Adrian Grima, Monika Maslowska, and Immanuel Mifsud.  

Entrance is free. 

Lejl Imkebbes

The Citadel in Gozo will be lit up with up to 30,000 candles in another edition of the Lejl Imkebbes festival on June 30. The event had been postponed due to inclement weather.

The festival will feature historic re-enactments, extended and discounted museum entrances, opening of other public venues of interest, children’s activities and live entertainment on stage and around the city.

Entrance is free. 

Time to Wake Up

An aerial silks show is taking place at the Orpheum Theatre in Gżira on June 30 at 7.30pm.

The event will feature 12 awe-inspiring acrobatic feats and graceful choreography performed by Aerial Silks Malta students and teachers.

For more information and tickets, visit https://aerialsilksmalta.com/ or visit their social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

Volleyball marathon in aid of Id-Dar tal-Providenza

A 53-hour fundraising volleyball marathon in aid of Id-Dar tal-Providenza is being held in the home’s car park in Siġġiewi between June 30 and July 2.

There will be live entertainment every evening between 6pm and midnight and the marathon will be shown on all main TV stations.

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VISUAL ARTS

My Palette

Paulino Schembri, known to many as Lino is presenting a solo exhibition at Gemelli Framing in Ta’ Qali.

The collection of work reflects the artist’s versatility, being collection of different styles from abstract to figurative and portraiture showcasing Schembri’s skills in mastering colour and the brush. 

The exhibition is open till June 28 from 8.30am till 2.30 pm on weekdays and 9am to noon on Saturdays.  

Il-Ħabba tal-Għajn

A solo exhibition by Alex Dalli is opening at the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta on June 8.

The exhibition, curated by Gabriel Zammit, follows the painter's journey from the figurative into the abstract.

As Alex Dalli developed as an artist his gaze turned from the external to the internal and his work necessitated a parallel shedding of form in order to express subtle ideas, feelings and abstract concepts. His sensitivity to colour and surface drove him to develop the minimal style that he is now known for.

The exhibition takes its cue from Michael Zammit’s Għana ’l Hena (APS, 2005) which is a cycle of poetry inspired by Sanskrit philosophy and mantra meditation.

Zammit uses language to do the same thing Dalli does with paint, and his words provide a context and touchstone for reading Dalli’s complexly coded images. 

The exhibition runs until June 28. Visit the exhibition's Facebook page  and the Malta Society of Arts website for more information.

Tnessid

An exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta is bringing together the work of five artists, Aaron Sammut, Elena Said, Kristov Scicluna, Marvic Camilleri and Ramona Borg, following their Master of Fine Arts in Digital Arts, at the Department of Digital Arts, at the University of Malta.

Tnessid is the inverse of ‘dissent’, meaning the diverging opinions from the ones that are commonly held. Apart from reflecting the different perspectives among the artists themselves, each individual project, in one way or another, presents an alternative perspective to commonly held views. The curation of the exhibition links these differences through a common aesthetic thread.

The works are multidisciplinary and conceptual, ranging from sculpture to drawing, installation and sound.

The exhibition, which runs until July 2, includes works by a group of MA students in Digital Arts from the University of Greenwich, London.

OTHER EXHIBITIONS

Ancient Tea With New Glamour

The China Cultural Centre in Malta is hosting a new exhibition under the theme of 'Tea for Harmony', co-organised with the Xi’an Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.

Featuring intriguing displays, artefacts, paintings and photographs from the city of Xi’an, this new exhibition opens a window into the enduring significance of tea in Chinese culture.

A Tang-style gilded tea set made of bronze gold and silver is the main attraction. Other exhibits include a batch of royal teaware items that were unearthed in 1987 at the ancient Buddhist Famen Temple in northwest Shaanxi and a modern reprinted thread-bound edition of The Classic of Tea, considered to be the first known monograph on tea in the world, written by Lu Yu between 760 CE and 762 CE, during the Tang Dynasty.

One may visit the exhibition, which will remain open until the end of this year at the China Cultural Centre, 173, Melita Street, Valletta. The centre is open Monday to Friday from 9.30am to noon, and from 1.30 to 4pm. Entrance is free. Reservation is advised for group visits at events2023ccc@gmail.com.