Teatru Astra
Gozo's opera house on Republic Street, home of La Stella and its annual autumn opera production.
Teatru Astra was inaugurated in January 1968 by the Socjeta Filarmonika La Stella, a Gozitan band and musical society founded in 1863. The society raised the building largely through voluntary labour and subscriptions from its members, and it remains in their hands today. Standing on Republic Street in Victoria, the theatre has a columned front and a horseshoe auditorium, and since the 1970s it has carried the annual opera that is now one of the fixed points of the Gozitan year.
The autumn opera is staged with a full orchestra, chorus and invited international principals, and forms the centrepiece of Festival Mediterranea, the multi-arts festival the theatre organises each October and November. Outside the opera season the Astra presents musicals, drama, symphonic and choral concerts, film screenings and community events. Together with the nearby Aurora Opera House it gives the small city of Victoria two working opera theatres within a few hundred metres of each other.
Highlights
- Built in 1968 by the La Stella philharmonic society
- Annual grand opera each autumn
- Centrepiece venue of Festival Mediterranea
- One of two opera houses in Victoria, Gozo
