When the Ministry for Gozo had informed Gozitan cultural organisations, early in 2001, of the possibility of local groups participating in the various editions of the Festival of European Islands Cultures being held in different European islands, this also envisaged participation in the Rencontres Musicales de Mediterranée due to be held in Corsica, France. The Gaulitanus Choir had showed its interest in participating both in this and in the Greece festival held in June. The choir’s participation as representatives of Gozo, Malta was confirmed by the Ministry in summer, after the 2nd edition of the Corsican festival dates were finally set as November 13-21. This was to be the choir’s 5th concert tour abroad, and, coming just a few months after the Greece concert tour, was thus a historic achievement for the choir.
Arriving in Corsica is never a straightforward affair. After weighing different options, the organisers opted that the choir should fly to Rome on the 13th, spend a night there, move by train to Livorno, and catch a ferry to Bastia, Corsica. With the weather being great, the 4-hour trip proved to be a most enjoyable one, and the choir could also afford to hold a rehearsal in the ferry’s lobby! The return leg was very much similar, and this time, rather than a rehearsal, the choir was offered a buffet lunch on the ferry.
The choir was asked to present a repertoire of local sacred music performed in Gozitan churches, particularly during the festa season. Doable with a rather small group, with the soloists being soprano Georgina Gauci and mezzo-soprano Claire Massa, and with the choir’s founder-director Colin Attard conducting and accompanying on the piano, the repertoire was highly appreciated throughout the choir’s various presentations in Bastia. These culminated in participation in the festival’s concluding Gala Concert at Bastia’s Theatre Municipal, alongside the other participating groups from Spain, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Corsica itself. This also included the interpretation by all groups of the Corsican song Perche Cantu. Whereas one choir event was attended by the president of the Corsica region Jean Baggioni, the choir also was involved in a postlude by animating an official Sunday morning Mass at Bastia’s Saint Jean Baptiste’s church, just before commencing the return journey to Malta. For this occasion the parish prepared a special leaflet with the order of the mass also featuring some of the verses from the Acts of the Apostles mentioning St Paul’s shipwreck in Malta and a map delineating his journey.
During this Corsica visit, which also included some really impressive sightseeing, the group was led by Mr Joe Camilleri from the Ministry for Gozo’s Cultural Office. The latter also presented a detailed report of the venture to the Minister for Gozo, Giovanna Debono, when the choir was invited for a courtesy visit at the Ministry soon after the tour.
Whereas the festival’s organisers were very courteous towards the Maltese group and a very friendly rapport was immediately established, the choir and choir director Colin Attard were overly pro-active, which was particularly appreciated by the organisers, especially in these early stages of the festival. The president of the Jeunesses Musicales de Mediterranée, which organises the festival, Guy Dongradi, and Michel Rossi, Corsican government official responsible for the European Small Islands Festival, were very much impressed, also relaying their very favourable feedback to the Ministry for Gozo. Indeed, this 2001 Corsica visit actually kicked off a long-standing relationship with the Rencontres.
In fact, just a year later, in 2002, the Gaulitanus Choir was again invited to Corsica, once more through the Ministry for Gozo. This time the choir’s contingent was larger – with the resident pianist Stephen Attard also in attendance and with the males actually outnumbering the females, possibly for the only time ever! The soloists were sopranos Georgina Gauci and Rita Dimech, mezzo-soprano Claire Massa and tenor Joseph Calleja. The Ministry’s representative was Culture official Mr Charles Zammit. Even the travelling itinerary was different, this time using flights via Paris – which also gave the choir the possibility to visit the French capital on the way back.
The festival was now broader, and the other participating groups from the Mediterranean basin came from Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Sardenia and Corsica itself. The Gaulitanus Choir’s scheduled events were also more numerous and onerous. The choir gave two concerts: one at the Oratorium at the Citadel in Calvi and another at Bastia’s Saint Charles church. Performing a mix of sacred repertoire, including Maltese hymns, the choir were extremely well-received and encores had to be given. The first part of each concert also featured the Moroccan and Turkish groups respectively. The choir also animated three masses in Bastia: at Saint Jean Baptiste, Saint Roch and Saint Charles. Besides, a lecture-recital themed “Music within the Maltese cultural identity” was delivered by Mro Attard with the choir giving musical illustrations at Corti’s Università di Corsica, and an interview-recital was given during a live programme on France Bleu – Radio Corse. The final commitment in this very intense programme was the festival’s concluding gala night at Bastia’s Theatre Municipal. The choir’s presentation of a medley of Neapolitan songs accompanied by the festival orchestra directed by Mro Attard enthused the audience, who afforded a standing ovation – the only one for the participating groups. The Soiree came to a grand conclusion with Bruno Susini’s Corsican song Parta e vulta, during which the choir and the festival orchestra featuring all the musicians participating in the festival accompanied the Corsican soloist. The song, orchestrated and conducted by Colin Attard, had to be repeated three times.
The choir’s participation in the Rencontres was given much prominence by the Corsican media, also with a front-page coverage of the Calvi concert appearing in Corse-Matin. The Ministry for Gozo eventually received very flattering letters from both Michel Rossi and Guy Dongradi, with Mr Rossi affirming that “the Maltese were truly great in the interpretation of the finale. Mro Attard and the Gaulitanus with the Corsican singers: Very good!!!” and Mr Dongradi underlining that “the participation of the Gaulitanus, masterly directed by Colin Attard, was highly remarkable. The artistic quality of this vocal ensemble has profoundly impressed the different audiences which have heard them. Their interpretation during the Gala Soiree has greatly contributed to the success of this sumptuous evening.”
As a matter of fact, Mro Attard’s involvement in the Rencontres 2002 was truly very onerous, being responsible for the artistic direction during the running of the festival as well as for quite some musical arrangements. His work was so much appreciated that he was re-engaged to return the year after as artistic director, arranger and conductor. Attard actually kept returning year-in-year out, in various capacities and often leading some Maltese artists, until 2008.
The Gaulitanus Choir itself actually returned to Corsica in November 2007, this time following an invitation directly from the organisers’s end. The festival, now in its 9th edition, had actually grew very much in stature as well as in the amount of funding received. The participating groups from Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and Corsica itself – included some from top-notch institutions – were also offered some very favourable conditions, perhaps also reflected in the number of Gaulitanus choristers making the trip.
As requested by the organisers, the repertoire presented during this festival edition included a selection of Maltese works – this time by its founder-director –, a selection of Verdi choruses and a Neapolitan medley – of which the Corsicans are so fond. The choir was accompanied by Stephen Attard on the piano, with soprano Rita Dimech and tenor Terry Shaw featuring as principal soloists, and soprano Stephanie Portelli, alto Aimee Grech, tenor Joseph Calleja, and baritone Joseph Buttigieg joining for a few lines.
The choir’s first commitment was a lunchtime concert at the College Montesoro in Bastia, as part of the festival’s educational programme, after which the choir departed to Cervioni where it gave a full-scale evening concert at the Pro-Cathédrale Saint-Erasme. Transmitted live on the local radio Voce Nustrale, the concert was held under the auspices of Cervioni’s mayor, M. Nicolai. The elated mayor was full of praise to the choir, whom he hosted to a wonderful and very lively post-concert dinner. The next day the choir performed at Bastia’s small theatre of San Angelo, together with the Egyptian group. As always, the most-expected commitment was the Soiree de Gala at Bastia’s Theatre Municipal. The choir gave its own presentation, as all other participants, before all joined forces for the much-expected Corsican song, Jean-Paul Poletti Terra Mea. Arranged and conducted by Colin Attard, this also featured Greek mezzo-soprano Angelica Katariou, Poletti’s own male choir form Sartène and the very large festival orchestra As always the song had to be reprised several times…with a photo of the applauses being acknowledged by the maestro appearing front page on Corse-Matin the following day.
Truly, once again, the audiences’s responses to the choir’s performances were great, with several rounds of applause and a rousing acclamation afforded every time. Of course, the choir always reciprocated with encores. The media was similarly flattering. This is perhaps most apparent in a rave review of the Cervioni concert appearing in Corse-Matin, which, effectively, says it all in very well-chosen poetic words. Entitling his review “The Maltese choir at Cervioni, bellissimo!”, Jacques Paoli claimed that all was “…a taste of beauty. No wonder Cervioni’s public anxiously awaited for the concert to start. The richness of the concert offered by the Maltese choir Gaulitanus under the direct ion of Colin Attard…was simply a live expression of beauty. Aesthetic beauty of a mixed choir fit to qualify as ‘very classy’…all looked very elegant. An elegance in harmony with the voices. An ensemble in perfect accord with the piano playing of Stephen Attard… The Gaulitanus Choir showed vocal sensibility with flowing diction and a joyful interpretation; all demonstrating the choir’s artistry…As Jean-Marc Prescelli, the priest, affirmed, ‘God also conceals himself in what is beautiful’, and these Maltese voices had in effect something heavenl. They opened the doors onto a garden where harmonies became colours, sounds become images, music a parody of life, the singers messengers of hope, and the soprano Rita Dimech, a fairy among the angels”.
Artistically apart, these participations in the several editions of the Rencontres Musicales de Mediterranée offered a wonderful opportunity of making new friends, of extending artistic networking, of broadening artistic perspectives, of appraising at first hand the organisation of complicated events – which all served the Gaulitanus very well –, and, not least, of proudly promoting Maltese culture with counterparts from around the Mediterranean basin. This Gaulitanus’s presence at the Rencontres was actually resumed in the next decade, when its soprano soloists participated in the 2015 festival edition, and the choir itself in the 2018 and 2019 editions.
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