The sixth festival Via Stellae has been drastically reduced. Its budget has diminished 70% and the number of concerts has gone from 124 to 14; all the concerts that used to be held in Galician towns directly related to different routes of the St. James´ way have disappeared, and during the next two weeks performances will only take place in Santiago. Beyond all these numbers, the quality of the festival has suffered irreparably, despite all the hard work and staunch support of his great director. The festival may be considered endangered in 2011, year which was inopportunely declared by the Galician government as “Year of the Music in Galicia”.
The fault is not in the crisis or the hateful markets. We would have nothing to say if the money that is said to be saved was devoted to fulfilling the basic needs of so many people in need. But it has not been like that, not even remotely. Please, I ask everybody not to insist on it.
No, the fault, dear Brutus, is in ourselves. We would like not to believe that the sin of the festival has been to be born at a wrong time (under the leadership of a different-leaning government) and in a wrong place (around Santiago and its routes). But regardless of pointless speculations, there is something very obvious and impossible to hide: the budgets of both the Galician government and its Ministry of Culture.
Just to mention an example and keeping exclusively to classical music, it is a verified fact that this year more money has been spent on a series of concerts that bring together, with a self-congratulatory splendour typical of new rich people, without any solid criteria and under a name of dubious taste, ostentatious artists, only available to a few privileged ones who do not mind wasting an hour on the phone to purchase the few tickets on sale at high prices, because the rest (and best) of the tickets have been reserved for politicians, alleged personalities, friends and the rest of the family.
It is a wrong decision, that we all have the right to criticize, to promote this ephemeral glorified substitute for the festival, made with the dishonest purpose to throw gore to the common people in the form of delicatessen, thereby sacrificing a thorough festival renowned in Europe aware of what it is and what it represents, that looks with humility and respect at the music and its assorted public, that offers affordable or free tickets, and that in a few years has managed to settle and to be accepted. In times of crisis, such errors represent the biggest waste.
This is not a tragedy at all, and perhaps we should not say that we are outraged. Moreover, only sadness and fatigue fit with our glorious age.
Some fans of the festival, the oldest who supported it from the very beginning and the true music lovers, will not attend the performances this year perhaps out of modesty, perhaps because the sad sight of a dying creature is cruel and unworthy for their helpless eyes.
Other fans, maybe we are the most naïve ones, have decided to continue going to the festival to enjoy the good things that, despite everything, have been obtained (not without hard work), without abandoning all hope that better times may still come, if the director has any strength and courage left to continue and, above all, if human foolishness and envy allow it.
A fan of Via Stellae.
The fault is not in the crisis or the hateful markets. We would have nothing to say if the money that is said to be saved was devoted to fulfilling the basic needs of so many people in need. But it has not been like that, not even remotely. Please, I ask everybody not to insist on it.
No, the fault, dear Brutus, is in ourselves. We would like not to believe that the sin of the festival has been to be born at a wrong time (under the leadership of a different-leaning government) and in a wrong place (around Santiago and its routes). But regardless of pointless speculations, there is something very obvious and impossible to hide: the budgets of both the Galician government and its Ministry of Culture.
Just to mention an example and keeping exclusively to classical music, it is a verified fact that this year more money has been spent on a series of concerts that bring together, with a self-congratulatory splendour typical of new rich people, without any solid criteria and under a name of dubious taste, ostentatious artists, only available to a few privileged ones who do not mind wasting an hour on the phone to purchase the few tickets on sale at high prices, because the rest (and best) of the tickets have been reserved for politicians, alleged personalities, friends and the rest of the family.
It is a wrong decision, that we all have the right to criticize, to promote this ephemeral glorified substitute for the festival, made with the dishonest purpose to throw gore to the common people in the form of delicatessen, thereby sacrificing a thorough festival renowned in Europe aware of what it is and what it represents, that looks with humility and respect at the music and its assorted public, that offers affordable or free tickets, and that in a few years has managed to settle and to be accepted. In times of crisis, such errors represent the biggest waste.
This is not a tragedy at all, and perhaps we should not say that we are outraged. Moreover, only sadness and fatigue fit with our glorious age.
Some fans of the festival, the oldest who supported it from the very beginning and the true music lovers, will not attend the performances this year perhaps out of modesty, perhaps because the sad sight of a dying creature is cruel and unworthy for their helpless eyes.
Other fans, maybe we are the most naïve ones, have decided to continue going to the festival to enjoy the good things that, despite everything, have been obtained (not without hard work), without abandoning all hope that better times may still come, if the director has any strength and courage left to continue and, above all, if human foolishness and envy allow it.
A fan of Via Stellae.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Oscar Wilde
hola!
ResponderEliminarComencé hace tres años con el inglés, así que fue una sorpresa ver tu post en ese idioma.
Un abrazo alma sensible!
:)