CASTELLDEFELS LOCKDOWN - DAY 9

The insignificant becomes important, or at least notable.

     On my rounds of the communal swimming pool my eye is always open to a photographic opportunity.  As my area of life has become more circumscribed, so my attention focuses more on the details of my surroundings.  I have had to try and limit myself from choosing a theme like ‘abstraction’ or ‘shadow’ or ‘line’ or something equally unimaginative and wondering if I could do a photographic essay based solely on my limited vistas.  Most of the time, wondering is enough in itself: I find say, a portion of bark on the gnarled trees that are planted at the edges of the pool and think that a decent photo could be taken of that; or I look at the edges of the tiles and see tiny wisps of grass that have escaped the attention of pool maintenance and think that a decent angled shot, with raked light might be effective – and then I walk on, the hard cultural work done by possible selection rather than concrete outcome!

     Still, I did take one short of a bird on top of a column with chain and lock which I felt did have some resonance with my present condition, but again, I didn’t take it any further.

     One short I could take from my little circular walks would be of a crayon sheath or sweet tube or something like that.  It would be perfectly incomprehensible to a viewer, such a mundane object being the centre of attention – but for me it is, if not a welcome sight, at least a point of recognition.  Each time I circle the pool I notice it; but it doesn’t stay in the same place.  And its movement interests me.  Was it the feral cats which infest this part of Castelldefels (kept alive by the ministrations of ancient ladies in expensive cars who leave milk and titbits for them); the wind, my feet, insects or what?  I have yet to meet anyone else on my solitary peregrinations, or indeed to hear anyone else during the time that I am not circuiting the pool, so it is either nature or cat.  And then I begin to wonder just how the isolation from my normal haunts are changing my attitudes!  If I can overthink something so trivial, and yet regard it now as a part of my recognized ritual of the day, then there is something seriously wrong.

     So let’s turn to something more normal.  Because most people are not used to being off-work and at-home for extended periods of time the electronic community has provided essential lists of Things To Keep You Occupied, ranging from lists of books that you might like to read; the best Netflix series to binge watch; chores that you have put off until a national emergency gives the opportunity to get them done; games you have not played since you were a child; how to clean the kitchen now you have no excuse not to; getting back in touch with those people who were, apparently too much trouble to keep up with, and music.

    And I would like to contribute my five pence worth to the suggestions. 

     I have a second ticket to the Opera in the Liceu in Barcelona and the crisis has meant that first one opera and then a whole slew of them have been delayed or possibly cancelled.  However, the Liceu has informed its subscribers that performances of past opera will be available online and we have been given a timetable of what and when.  I must admit that watching an opera outside the opera house and on a small screen is not something that I really enjoy, though I am more than prepared to ‘get my homework done’ by watching a performance of a future opera that I do not know well on YouTube, so that when I see my (expensive) performance I am at least partially prepared and able to respond with some knowledge to what I see and hear.

     I have no intention of making some sort of ‘Greatest Operas You Have to Listen To’ list, but I would like to suggest two and extracts from those rather than listening to the whole thing.

     To the question of “What is your favourite Opera?” I would have to answer, if it is to be based on the number of times that I have seen a live performance in the Opera House, with The Macropolos Case by Leos Janacek.  The libretto is based on a play of the same name by Carel Kapek (a man perhaps better known as the author of the play “R.U.R” from which we get the word ‘robot’!) and concerns an opera singer who was forced to take an elixir of immortality, but must continue to take the elixir to maintain her youth.  I first saw this opera in a production by Welsh National Opera with Elizabeth Soderstrom in the role of E.M. (the initials she maintained in all the names that she used in her long life) with amazing sets and costume designs by Maria Bjornson.  I loved it!  But, my favourite opera?  I wonder.

     The opera that I click on the most if I am ‘casual listening’ is Akhnaten by Philip Glass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSn_UAquOfw&list=PLv1nhJnfcwQJQG5vo39yDH3puJWLDiIpc

Set in ancient and modern times, the opera is concerned with the extraordinary pharaoh who dispensed with the hierarchy of gods and determined that all worship should be centred on one god, the Aten.  The course of the opera takes us through the turbulent life of the pharaoh and the eventual destruction of the city that he founded.

     I first heard this opera on a Radio 3 performance on a Sunday afternoon and I was instantly gripped by the music as I had no idea whatsoever what was going on in the libretto.  A friend called in to take me out and I had to switch on my cassette player (ah, happy days!) to record as much as the tape allowed in my absence.  When I recorded the extract of the opera there was no commercial recording available, but I listened to my ‘bit’ again and again.

Glass is a minimalist (or perhaps post-minimalist) composer and his music is recognizable by its tunefulness and by his use of repetition.  The languages of the libretto are ancient and contemporary, and I find it gripping.  If you have never heard any of it before then I suggest the opening ten minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PufT63ER0uY

or the Hymn to the Sun,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWdIzA1SuC0

which is the more usual extracted highlight, these will give you a real flavour of the musical style: if you these then you will like the full version!

     The other suggestion is less well known than Akhnaten (!) but it is an opera of which I have a great fondness.

     Like Akhnaten, this opera is by an American composer and like Akhnaten it is, in the widest sense, historical.

  The story of my liking of the opera in question started, though I didn’t know it at the time, with my reading a typically clever and witty article in the New Yorker published in a James Thurber Omnibus, “There’s an owl in my room”.  I was too young to understand exactly what was going on in the piece and the names of the characters meant nothing to me at the time.  The phrase that stood out for me was “Pigeons, on the grass, alas!”  Thurber was devastating in his demolition of what he saw as absurd pretention and something about the phrase stayed with me.

     The scene changes to Kettering Market and a second-hand record of “Four Saints in Three Acts” by Virgil Thomson (of whom I had never heard) with libretto by Gertrude Stein (of whom I had heard).  It was cheap and I bought it.  And in playing it I heard the words, set to music of, “Pigeons, on the grass, alas!”  An electrifying moment when juvenile reading and modern music came together!

     Virgil Thomson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa_Mg2sEyxs

The extract is something you will either find fascinating or absurd.  Either way it’s worth listening to.  And there are other extracts in YouTube that might take your fancy.

     Another reason for my liking this opera is because it created one of my most memorable moments in Opera.

     I have only heard “Four Saints in Three Acts” once live, and that was in a double bill by ENO in London.  I listened spellbound to something I never thought I would ever have the opportunity to hear in the Opera House and at the end of the performance, I turned, with shining eyes to the woman sitting on my right and said, “Wasn’t that wonderful!”  And she, looking into my eyes, said, “No!”  Ah well, each to his or her own!

     So, these two operas, Akhnaten and Four Saints in Three Acts are my suggestions for passing the time to keep fear about the virus out of your minds.  I’m not quite sure what they will fill your mind with instead, but it won’t be virus!

Pleae consider visiting my 'new' poetry blog smrnewpoems.blogspot.com

 

A new day?

-->

THURSDAY 21ST DECEMBER 4.45 PM

Walking towards the entrance of our polling station in Castelldefels we were met by a tall gentleman who had obviously just voted.  He was striding towards us with a look of ferocious distain and contempt on his face, emotions that might be explained by the fact that he was draped in a large Spanish flag.  In the metropolitan area of Barcelona.  In Catalonia.  A country recently ‘taken over’ by the right wing minority government of PP.  It seemed to us that the wearing of the flag was a deliberate provocation, but Catalans are too canny to rise to such obvious and childish challenges.

Given his pugnacious demeanour, I did wonder how his bedecked frame had been received in the crowded room where the actual ballot boxes were.  Although there are many non-Catalans in Castelldefels, there is still a majority of ‘native’ inhabitants for whom the Spanish flag paraded in such an obvious and flagrant way will either recall direct memories of the Dictatorship and the suppression of Catalan identity, or will emphasise more recent memories of Spanish state repression.  In any case, it was a crass thing to do - but PP and the Spanish state are good at doing things to show that they are deliberately tone deaf to the aspirations of Catalans.

Toni’s actual vote was, however, unexceptional - and he was even ushered to the front of the queue as the half of the alphabet that contained his name had an empty desk available for him to register!  So in and out in a couple of minutes.  Job completed, duty done.

Now the waiting to see what other voters thought their duty was!

There are beginning to be accounts of irregularities in polling stations - but at this stage it is difficult to know whether the events are run-of-the-mill incompetence or something more sinister.

There have been reports of envelopes being pre-stuffed with the list of Cs. 

Perhaps I should explain that sentence.  You do not vote by putting a cross next to your choices.  You can choose any of the printed ‘lists’ that are stacked on tables in the polling station, put forward by the different parties.  Each party list has a series of numbered names and, depending on the number of votes cast for each party, a proportion of those on the list will be elected.  It follow that if you are Number 1 on the list you are more or less guaranteed to be elected; the lower down the list you are, your chances of election depend on the number of votes cast for your party.

There are stringent rules about the elections, and votes can be declared null and void if the rules are not followed strictly.  One rule states that you can only have one list in your envelope when you put it into the ballot box.  If by mistake you put two copies of your party list then your vote will be null.  It turns out that in one part of Catalonia some of the envelopes were pre-stuffed with a Cs party list, so if a voter put their list in the envelope without realizing that there was a list already there, their vote would be cancelled.  I am still waiting to hear confirmation of this irregularity.

In another small town the lists of one of the independence parties were missing in the polling station.  That too is being investigated.

I think, and quite reasonably, that there is a level of mistrust on all sides about how this election is going to be administrated.  Remember the election is being run by a corrupt right wing minority Spanish government that has sacked the entire Catalan government and taken over the reins of power itself.  They have everything to lose if Catalonia votes for independence and they are running the election!

The corrupt right wing minority Spanish government has refused international observers to monitor the election and the counting and so the independence parties have mounted an operation to try and observe every stage of the election to try and ensure that there is no widespread fraud.

The right wing Spanish media and press have been one sided in favouring Cs (the right wing, PP supporting, big business financed party) as the best way of getting a PP friendly government in Catalonia.  I sincerely hope that their underhand tactics work against them and Cs are treated with the contempt by the voters that they richly deserve.

It’s now early afternoon and there is a certain calm about the day.  It is only in the evening when people leave work and vote that we might be able to gain a clearer view of what is happening in the country.

THURSDAY 21st DECEMBER 11.40 PM

Well, 97.9% of the votes are in and the independent parties have won an absolute majority.  But.  The party with the largest share of the vote is Cs.

I have had to start a new paragraph because I feel positively dirty admitting that the people among whom I live could vote for such an apology for a political objective.  This single issue party, founded to keep Catalonia in Spain has expanded itself to become a national party with the aid of shady backers, big business and prejudice.

I am appalled that such a party has become, or rather has maintained its position as the opposition in Parliament.

I have to keep reminding myself that the independence parties have an absolute majority to take away the bitter taste of Cs 'success'.

How did it come about?  Well, there are many non Catalans in Catalonia.  Some of them are recent citizens, but others are second or third generation Spaniards who originally came to Catalonia for work and a better way of life than in their home regions.  We have numbers of immigrants from Africa and from South America who have come to an industrial centres like Barcelona and Catalonia.

Just like Britain, the economy of Catalonia depends on an influx of immigrants to keep things running.  Perhaps these people feel more links with a wider Spain than with a Catalan republic.

I suppose you could also say that this electoral campaign was hardly equal for all parties.  Cs had the tacit support of PP with whom they work and vote.  They also had the clear support of most of the national media and most of the newspapers.  On the other hand, our leaders are imprisoned or in exile and our access to the media was obviously limited.  One imprisoned leader for example is only allowed a certain number of phone calls each month and, no unreasonably the majority of them are to his wife.  He was not allowed to participate fully in the campaign and had to make do with a few recorded telephone calls replayed at meetings.  Our President has done his best to be a part of the campaign from Belgium, but it is not the same as being in the thick of things.

Given the disadvantages and the fact that the 'playing field' was distinctly not level, I think that we have done well.

It is unfortunate that Cs got more seats than the largest independence party, but the independent parties have the absolute majority and we will go forward from there.

Now the ball is in Rajoy's court.  He has not got exactly what he wanted: a clear defeat of the independence parties and the election of Cs as the ruling party.  What he has got is a friendly party with the most seats, but with no majority, whatever coalition Cs try to form - the absolute majority is with what Rajoy fears most.

The New Year will see the first meeting of the new parliament and then the fun will start.  Rajoy will probably keep Article 155 going, which gives PP full control over Catalonia.

In this election the Catalan version of PP, the party of the right wing minority Spanish government managed to get 3.9% of the popular vote - a loss of 5% from their previous dismal almost double digit showing in the last election!  And they govern us! 

¡Visca Catalunya!