Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Of Dix and Spontini

OK—it’s not really a day when you want to look at island news. The New Day couldn’t be clearer: 53% think things are going muy mal (very badly) and 40% think things are bastante mal (fairly badly). Oh—and bad news for the governor, who promised everybody that he would create 50,000 new jobs in the first 18 months of his…err, reign. Because 73% say that there are few jobs, and only 2% believe that there are many (hard to believe that the governor’s family is so big….)
Prices? 90% think they’ve risen in the past three months. Oh, and what about the threatened degradation of our credit into junk status? Well, 61% of us don’t understand at all or only a little the whole thing, but 67% think it would affect them personally. 41% rate the quality of life in Puerto Rico as bad or very bad, and guess what? Fully 33% think it likely to some extent that they will leave the island in the next four years.
Right—take that razor blade away from your wrist, Dear Reader!
(Note—all of these data appear in the print edition of El Nuevo Día of 4 November 2013, which I bought for 75 cents yesterday at the grocery store. Unfortunately, the survey is available only through the “paper” paper or a “digital” (read “for sale”) paper. Two choices, Readers! Trust me, or send me a comment, and I’ll scan the paper….)
Into this grim situation steps the governor, who electronically is reported as admitting that the situation, the mood on the island is “pesimismo.” He then wonderfully retreats to his delusional world by stating the following:
“El crimen se ha reducido, el desempleo se ha reducido, la luz se ha reducido, el agua hay que reducirla”, expuso sobre las metas que se ha propuesto o cumplido para acabar con la imagen negativa.
Here it is: “Crime has been reduced, unemployment has been reduced, electricity has been reduced, and water has been reduced,” he stated about the goals that he had proposed or achieved to put a finish to the negative image.
Well, well—time to check up on the gov, which I can now do, since I am one of the 22% of the population without a job. So let’s google “costo de agua Puerto Rico.” Right, and halfway down the first page is this, from El Nuevo Día of 31 August 2013:
Sube la tarifa del agua en los condominios en Puerto Rico
Subir—to rise, go up, increase, mount.
La electricidad de la Isla es la segunda más cara en EE.UU.
OK—that’s from two years ago, but according to WAPA television, as of 1 October 2013, the price may rise.
Look, do I need to go on? Is there any good news, anywhere?
In fact, there is: the world just got 1500 pieces of art back; here’s The New York Times on the subject:
The trove includes works by Picasso, Marc Chagall, Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the German artists Max Beckmann, Max Liebermann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Carl Spitzweg, said Siegfried Klöble, the head of the Munich customs office, which oversaw the operation to recover the art.
Hey, great news—though it does come with an opportunity, as I used to say in my corporate days. And that is? Well, most of this stuff was either looted or bought at rock bottom price from Jews wanting out of Nazi Germany. So how do you figure out who owned what, and who sold what for what? Here, according to the Times, is what art historian Meike Hoffmann had to say:
She stressed that it is extremely difficult to nail down the origin and the ownership history of some of the works and that she has only begun initial research on some 500 of the works. Further research, she said, could take years.
Among other things found, by the way, was an unknown self-portrait of Otto Dix, about whom I knew nothing: here’s another self-portrait:

Right—so now we have two!
Oh—and good news in the world of opera: the Times is reporting renewed appreciation of the works of Spontini.
Spontini?
Damn—it’s one thing after another, the stuff I don’t know. So who was the guy?
Wikipedia to the rescue!
Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini (14 November 1774 – 24 January 1851) was an Italian opera composer and conductor, extremely celebrated in his time, though largely forgotten after his death.
Right—that made me feel better. And if our governor can live in his own private Puerto Rico, can’t I create a nice delusional cocoon myself. Why not listen to a 1954 recording of Maria Callas singing Spontini? So I ambled over to YouTube and dug her up.
Verdict?
Not sure—but why does the term “justly forgotten” spring to mind?

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