An eighteenth-century playhouse built by the Grand Master Antonio de Vilhena in 1731. It opened a year later with a performance of Maffei's Merope, and flourished for a century or more with a nine-month season of mixed opera and plays. Renamed the Royal Theatre by the British occupying powers, it continued pre-eminent until the building of the much larger Opera House, after which it sank into disrepair. In the 1953 steps were taken to restore it. It was bought by the Maltese Government, and in 1957 a committee was set up to rebuild and modernize it backstage while retaining the historic auditorium and facade. On 27 Dec. 1960 it reopened as the National Theatre of Malta with a season by the Ballet Rambert.

In: Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. The concise Oxford companion to the theatre. 1st ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.   ISBN 0-19-281102-9. p. 333

Author: Hartnoll Phyllis