As a fitting conclusion to a week of celebrations to honour the 125th anniversary of the town of Victoria, the Chorus Urbanus was 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 was held in Independence Square on Sunday, the 10th of June 2012 at 8pm. Seasoned soloists Yvonne Galea (Soprano), Claire Massa (mezzo-soprano), Cliff Zammit Stevens (tenor), and Noel Galea (bass) took part in the concert. The concert featured well-known operatic arias, choruses and other vibrant orchestral music such as Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Verdi’s La Forza del Destino and came to an end with Ravel’s Bolero.
The evening promised to be a spectacular feast of music that also featured 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 was under the direction of the composer himself, 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.
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