At 4.30 on Sunday morning, Albanian authorities demolished the building of the National Theatre, ending two years of public resistance.
Dozens of protesters were arrested. Protests were issued by several embassies.
State vandalism at its worst.
More here.
There is no room for Sir Simon Rattle…
The Vienna Philharmonic has just awarded honorary membership…
The summers season, rolled out today, shows welcome…
Latest leaps on the merry-go-round: – Vasily Petrenko…
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It’s one crazy building replace another crazy building.
This the old one:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tirana_National_Theater_(WPWTR17).jpg
…. and this will be the new one:
https://www.archdaily.com/890802/big-unveils-bow-shaped-design-for-national-theatre-of-albania
Big real estate business, corrupt government and mentally-challenged architects uniting to bring poor Tirana ‘up-to-date’ to modern, sterilized times.
It’s a pity.
https://www.europanostra.org/europa-nostra-urges-the-albanian-government-to-save-the-national-theatre-from-demolition/
How nice.
Tirana’s center, an Italian-era creation of very limited imagination, is notorious for disappointing visitors, to the point where foreign tourists are often dissuaded from travelling to Tirana because “there is nothing to see there”. Also many locals feel that this center makes their proud capital city feel provincial. So, this theatre is planned to be replaced with “soulless modern architecture”, but this is new modern architecture that may well charm more people than it turns off.
I’ve been to Tirana, and it is not a particularly interesting city. The National Gallery, when I was there, was pathetic. The National Theatre was unimpressive.
But the reasons why this was done had nothing to do with aesthetics or making the city more of a jewel. They were purely commercial, and corrupt as hell.
The current building is a not very interesting fascist era Italian building.
V. Lind, I’m impressed that you’ve been to Tirana. Isn’t Albania one of the poorest nations in Europe? I remember levs, King Zog, and have actually met three real Albanians nearby, not counting two AWOL masquerading soldiers from “Cosi fan tutte”.