CULTURE IN CHAVEZ YEARS

CULTURE IN CHAVEZ YEARS
Sunday 5, January 2003


[From a note from an Australian Friend I took the opportunity to write about what happened to the cultural scene in Venezuela in these past 3 years]

>Daniel,
>
>Last night I listened to a live radio FM stereo broadcast of a wonderful
>Venezeulan Orchestra and Chorus from Caracas. Apparently because of the fuel
>strike the 60 performers all had be ferried from their homes in Caracas to
>the airport in a special LPG gas-fueled bus.

I think this was some dramatization. Public transportation still works to some extent since more than a third of taxis are gas (not gasoline) powered, as well as many buses and trucks. Though the a third of these ones are diesel which is still in reasonable supply. It is easier to go to the airport by bus than to drive there yourself...

>It is a recent composition
>which was very impressive and received a standing ovation at the Sydney
>Opera House, which unlike in the US is extremely rare in Australia (as
>Kathleen Battle recently found to her chagrin - she didn't get one).

I am happy to hear that, so to speak.
>
>The details were:
>
>Direct broadcast from the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
[snip]
>
>Do you know of this music or the performers at all, Daniel?
>
>- Tim

I have to confess that I do not know them in such detail though I have heard, and heard of them as a very good group. For some reason I have not attended their concerts. But remember that I do not live in Caracas and unless I do a special trip I have to coincide with any performance.

This being said, the nasty corrupt governments that preceded Chavez and may they rot in hell, did achieve a few things. About 25 years ago the administration at the time decided to exploit the musical bent of the Venezuelan people. The way was to create musical instruction wherever possible, without being embarrassed to use native instruments as seriously as the classical ones, if anything as a way to introduce people to music. This resulted in a spectacular blooming of conservatories and local orchestras. Before Chavez Caracas managed to have several symphonic orchestras and choral companies. Chavez managed to break this, for example by trying to promote pro-chavez people and breaking up the main symphony orchestra. And by promoting only folklore in the false belief that violin had prospered too much and other such nonsense. There is right now a scandal as to THE Matisse of the Caracas modern art museum. It is a fake! The question is did the museum buy the fake in the first place or did somebody substituted it, and who? It seems that the new curators of the museum, chavistas, were trying to sell the painting in Miami..... Anyway it is still quite a murky affair and the true Matisse might still appear, or might not.

Caracas cultural scene has litterally collapsed. Opera has become a once a year event. The traditional Sunday morning concert at the Central University, in one of the best auditoriums I have ever been too, and my favorite with the NY MET one, are things of the past. There are very few international visitors now, and attending a performance is a ruinous event. Etc....

But the Schola has managed to resist because it was a flagship before Chavez and enough international reputation that it has not only remained untouched, but because it has a lot of private support [I was told]. So chavistas could not make do with it.