Be the first to comment!Chorus Urbanus & Malta Philharmonic Orchestra in concert
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The Victoria Local Council will be commemorating the 125th anniversary since the raising of Rabat to the status of a city and officially renamed as Victoria.
As a fitting conclusion to a week of celebrations to honour this anniversary, the Chorus Urbanus have been invited to perform together with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra during a concert to mark the day when this concession by Queen Victoria was made public, way back in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
The concert is being held in Independence Square on Sunday, the10th of June 2012 at 8pm. It will also feature soloists Yvonne Galea (Soprano), Claire Massa (mezzo-soprano), Cliff Zammit Stevens (tenor), and Noel Galea (bass). The concert will feature well-known operatic arias, choruses and other vibrant orchestral music such as Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Verdi’s La Forza del Destino and will come to an end with Ravel’s Bolero.
The evening that promises to be a spectacular feast of music will also feature the world premiere of a commissioned celebratory overture entitled A Magna Maxima composed by John Galea for this specific festive celebration. The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra will be under the direction of Dr John Galea.
The British Empire celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne on 21 June 1887. On the initiative of two of the island’s most eminent citizens, Msgr Pietro Pace, then Bishop of Gozo, and Sir Adrian Dingli, Chief Justice and President of the Court of Appeal, felt that this Jubilee should be commemorated in a fitting manner. So they formulated a petition soliciting Her Majesty to concede that Rabat be declared a city and renamed Victoria.
The dispatch from London had not reached Valletta in time for the celebrations. The reply was communicated to the Bishop of Gozo on the 4th of June and it was made public on the 10th of June.
His Excellency the Governor directs it to be notified that Her Majesty the Queen, in compliance with a prayer of a petition signed by the Lord Bishop of Gozo, the members’ of the Chapter, and of the principal inhabitants of Gozo, has been graciously pleased to consent to the town of Rabat in that Island being on the occasion of Her Majesty’s Jubilee officially declared a City and its name changed into that of Victoria.
