Artistic Director ÓLIVER DÍAZ speaks to Lara Zammit about the Malta Summer Festival and its aim to reinvigorate opera among audiences. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra has launched its Malta Summer Festival as part of efforts to raise interest in music and promote the orchestra itself. Kicking off on July 13 and running until July 21, the festival’s main events will be held in Fort St Elmo, Valletta. The festival’s artistic director, Óliver Díaz, speaks with Times of Malta about his collaboration with the national orchestra. LZ: Organised by the MPO, the Malta Summer Festival aims to present opera in an innovative way by bolstering the visibility of the genre. What difficulties do you feel the genre is facing which impede audiences from engaging with it more freely? How does the programme of events devised for the festival aim to mitigate these? OD: Classical music, particularly opera, developed a very powerful image when Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan ingeniously showed the performer (particularly the conductor) as a creature almost in contact with the gods. We can all remember those incredible photos featuring his ‘modern’ hairy style, eyes closed or wide open, and...
