Prestige Maltese venue too hot for EU strings

From the Times of Malta

Performances scheduled to be held at the President's Palace courtyard, in Valletta yesterday and tonight were relocated indoors because of the humid weather conditions.

Maladies And Melodies, a programme of baroque music by the EU Baroque Orchestra, was moved to the Ambassador's Hall at the Auberge de Castille also in Valletta at the orchestra's request when it realised the weather was so humid.

Such weather conditions wreak havoc on instruments in general but have a stronger effect on stringed instruments as they can affect tuning. This would have been exacerbated in the case of the baroque orchestra, which uses period instruments that employ gut strings that are even more susceptible to the weather.

This shift in venue provides ammunition to those opposed to the open air performance space at the site of Valletta's opera house ruins.

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