The cause of much feminine frustration chez moi (“How can you listen to that rubbish!”), Justo Molinero has been been betrayed by Artur Mas after 30 years profiting from the provision of the vaseline essential to the relationship between Catalan-speaking lords and Spanish-speaking serfs – doing well by doing good, he may even have thought. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, I assume on the orders of the CUP, the tail wagging the hyena:
Mas se ha convertido en sirviente de los antisistema y no en la fragua del business friendly que prometió; en un factor de caos, y no de orden; en coartada de los admiradores de Kropotkin y Durruti, y no en representante de la burguesía moderada; en creador de incertidumbre, y no de expectativas racionales de mejora.
I doubt whether many in the CUP have read those authors, but it’s a striking if hysterical dichotomy.
Well out of it.
Similar posts
Back soon
The people I know in the CUP are extremely well-read, particularly in political history. They actually also have the most critical and realistic points of view on the ‘process’ and the nature of Catalan politics in general. Also they’re often young. Much better than the floppy-armed types in Iniciativa.
I’m not sure which is more hysterical, the Cronica column or the País editorial. But neither is as good as Carles Enric López’s ouevre, also of Can Cronic, which consists of a cocktail of lurid death fantasy and tawdry sexism all in easy-to-swallow, semi-literate meathead prose.
Anyway, Don Justo has been playing the game as much as anyone else (http://www.cronicaglobal.com/es/notices/2015/05/justo-molinero-hace-campana-por-ciu-tras-recibir-dos-licencias-de-radio-de-la-generalidad-19969.php). And sometimes the game doesn’t go in one’s favour. In other circumstances, I might consider the rectal perturbation inappropriate, but I also dig on Radio Teletaxi (on road trips, anyway), and will be sorry to see it go.
BTW, as you very well know, the real lords (they live in Pedrables and Sarriá, and hang out at the tennis club and the Circulo Ecuestre) don’t speak a word of Catalan – they loathe it. Go to pretty much any uptown kiosk and it’s really a choice between ABC and La Razón.
Tom, as I see you are acquainted with CUP lads, please tell them they are doing a great job.
@Tom: Why are all my friends ignorami? There’s probably a simple answer to that. But I too prefer the CUP people I know to the Alphabet Soupers, though that may change. I wish I knew some of the lords you know.
@Javier: You never cease to surprise me.
Maybe one day there’ll be a real fight on here, as used to happen before the mainstream media (do people still say that?) opened up comments and got the public to write all their articles as well.
Changing the subject, I have glanced through your repertoire and have not found that most Spanish music for the organillo, el chotis. Or schottish.
Here is what I call a masterpiece:
http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000015951
Enchanting as it is, I fear that might be a bridge too far, even for Hackney’s Spanish speakers. (A couple of weeks ago I was singing “Yo tengo un moco” when a Spanish woman rushed up to me, embraced me, burst into tears, and bought me an almond slice. Most satisfying.)
For some reason I have terrible childhood memories of the schottisch, perhaps from finding them in piano books and failing to understand that music did not necessarily need to consist entirely of waltzes, marches and football chants.
The lyrics for “Último varón sobre la tierra” (and for the B side, “Moros del Rif”, which makes for interesting listening) can be found in the zarzuela Ladronas de amor here, and one Javier (¡how many Javiers there are on this earth!) has transcribed them in usable form on a rather interesting blog here.
There are many favourites on that blog, including “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz“, which, like so many great songs, I first heard sung at the bar of a pub, Café De Kroeg in Oldenzaal, by a drop-out tenor, and then in a great recording by Fritz Wunderlich. “Bump n’ grind” falls into that category – R. Kelly doesn’t even come close to the two slightly portly gents, one black and one white, who sing it at Midnight Karaoke at the Globe in Morning Lane.
I happen to know that blog. And the delightful owner. And the lazy keeper…
Most audio links do not work. But I have managed to get this to work, as I see you are keen on operetta.
I am the only one to see a strong likeness between German language operetta and Spanish musical theatre ( zarzuela and revista)? More similarities that with French operette for instance.
And another of my gems here.
You could always take the owner to see Clivia in Berlin in the spring https://english.komische-oper-berlin.de/schedule/clivia/
Spain would have been a far nicer country in the 20th century if its rulers had taken to Gilbert and Sullivan. A friend managed to put on the Mikado in Shanghai a decade ago and look how things have improved.
Thanks for the vernal suggestion.
I am not much into G&S fare, I reckon. But I am probably nice enough.
Digging in the fabulous Hemeroteca Digital Hispánica reveals that the first G&S operetta to be premiered in Spain was “HMS Pinafore”, translated simply as Pinafor, in 1885.
The critic of El Día said:
“Seguramente dentro de poco los organillos y bandurrias y hasta los chicos, con sus canciones, popularizarán varios números de Pinafor, pues la música de Sullivan se presta mucho á ello.”
Curiously ( or not) it was staged at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, in Madrid, that was not then the state-run theatre that is now, ( I think Teatro Real wasn’t either ) but it enjoyed a certain status of “The National Zarzuela Theatre”.
And no more Gilbert and Sullivan until… 1985!
( but I could be wrong ) “The Mikado” was that year premiered by an amateur cast, at Complutense University, in Madrid too.
It’s a shame, because – and few people know this – Sullivan was the finest Spanish composer of his time. Here’s the end of The Gondoliers: