[Marxism] MONTREAL GAZETTE: Musical diplomacy: Is Cuba next?

[Walter Lippmann]

Canadians are very lucky. They can, and thousands and thousands do,
simply fly down to Cuba for a weekend. Normalization makes that one
of the favored options for people from Canada. It's precisely that
which has the Miami militants - not an athletic team - scared more
than ever now. Here's the link to a piece in today's MIAMI HERALD
by the paid opponents of normalization, while below is one of many
articles I've seen advocating expanded musical contacts with Cuba 
in light of this week's visit to the DPRK by the NY Philharmonic.


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California

WHY TRAVEL TO CUBA MUST BE REGULATED (Miami Herald)
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/439886.html

WHEN WILL CUBA BE OPEN FOR BUSINESS? (Business Week)
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_10/b4074000185600.htm
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MONTREAL GAZETTE
Musical diplomacy: Is Cuba next?
  
ARTHUR KAPTAINIS 
The Gazette 

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Is there anything great music cannot do? This week, it forged a
diplomatic link between two of the staunchest foes on Earth, as the
redoubtably American New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel played
a concert at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in Pyongyang, North
Korea, before an audience that included members of the isolated
republic's political elite.

There were churlish dismissals of the visit from the White House, but
the initiative clearly creates an opportunity in 2009 for the
successor U.S. administration, of whichever party, to nudge relations
with North Korea a few degrees above absolute zero. Even if the
concert signalled nothing more than a desire by the Communist
dictatorship to seem more open to the Western world, it was a major
event. Millions heard about it. David Letterman saw fit to air a
spoof.

So which nation is next? Cuba, post-Fidel Castro, is the obvious
candidate. And the obvious ambassador organization is the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano.

There are few good reasons to think about a Cuban tour. More than
half a million Canadians visit the island yearly, more tourists than
from any other nation. Canadian imports, at around $600 million, are
robust. Cuba is rich in natural resources, especially nickel.
Canadians know a thing or two about natural resources. Sherritt, a
Canadian mining company, has substantial operations in Cuba. There is
our corporate sponsorship?

Two Canadian prime ministers have made official visits to Cuba,
Pierre Trudeau in 1976 and Jean Chrétien in 1998. The friendship of
Trudeau and Castro was legendary, and while Castro disputed
Chrétien's observation that Cuba incarcerates dissidents - "Don't you
have prisoners in Canada?" was the president's response - the visit a
decade ago did not go badly. This is a good time to renew the
political friendship.

There would be few logistical difficulties. There are more than 100
flights weekly to Cuba from Canada. And the fact the orchestra's
music director is an American would add a touch of U.S. rapprochement
to the visit. Nagano might endure some criticism from U.S.
conservatives, but the point of such cultural initiatives is to
remain above the frey, an art for which the MSO music director has
shown some aptitude. And for crying out loud: Maazel, his fellow
American, conducted in North Korea.

The idea works on the Cuban end. If Castro's brother and successor,
Raul, is at all serious about modernizing Cuba and opening the island
to trade, a visit by the MSO would make a fine public relations
statement. Not that such trips are all about imagery. Cubans are
cultured people, not with any orchestra to speak of, but a noted
classical dance company, the Ballet Naconal de Cuba. The 1837 Gran
Teatro is one of the notable arts venues of the Americas. Enrico
Caruso sang there.

Repertoire? Gerswhin's Cuban Overture is a splendid piece, not heard
as often as it should be. The MSO is, or was, the greatest Ravel
orchestra in the world. This composer's Rapsodie espangole has a
sultry Habanera movement. Of course, the MSO playlist should include
a Canadian piece (as the repertoire taken by the orchestra next month
to Japan and Korea, quite reprehensibly, does not).

There are other places on the island the orchestra could play. 
A work by Messiaen in a cathedral might be a nice means of asserting
Canadian views regarding freedom of religion. Guantanamo Bay?
Impossible. But the tour could include appearances elsewhere in the
tropics, say at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico (which the MSO
visited in 1996 under Charles Dutoit) or, even more daringly, at the
Carnival Centre of the Performing Arts in Miami.

The possible soloists are many. The Cuban guitarist Leo Brouwer could
play one of his own concertos. A pianist never hurts. Condoleezza
Rice might have some openings in her 2009 agenda.

By all reports, Kim Jong Il was not present for the New York
Philharmonic concert of Tuesday. This is surprising, since the Dear
Leader (as North Koreans know him) is a published music critic. His
178-page tract On the Art of Opera, based on what must have been a
lengthy talk to Creative Workers in the Field of Art and Literature
in September 1974, outlines a revolutionary way of reviving that
bourgeois pastime.

"There is no need to portray life exclusively by stage songs,
sticking to the outmoded pattern," the dictator writes. "The
introduction of pangchang in opera, along with that of stanzaic
songs, is a particularly important success in the opera revolution."

Not having heard a pang-chang, I cannot vouch for its efficacy in
performance, but I gather it is a chorus that represents the
indomitable will of the people. There are plenty of pangchangs in Sea
of Blood, the long-running North Korean opera to which Kim makes
repeated reference.

Now, what are the Opéra de Montréal plans for next season?


akaptainis at sympatico.ca

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=eb1f5beb-e426-
443e-9c3d-67bed7360466