Dominican music - much more than I knew!

Voyager

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Mar 1, 2004
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Last night (24 Aug) I went to a concert in Teatro Nacional. The Orquesta Filarmonica de Santo Domingo played ?Melodias de Mi Tierra?. It was fantastic!

The conductor, the charismatic Mr Amaury S?nchez did the unusual thing and talked about the music on a few occasions during the evening.

Why haven?t I seen anything in brochures etc about Dominican music other than the commercial merengue and bachata pumped out by the radio stations?

Listen to ?Fantasia Criolla?by Mr B. Bustamante! Fantastic! Or ?San Antonio?, a soft merengue by Nico Lora. Great!

Finally, I find Dominican music that I really like! Where can I find more of this?

It only goes to show the great spectrum of Dominican culture, IF YOU CAN FIND IT!!! I had no clue of this kind of music until yesterdays concert. And I have been complaining about ?lack of culture?in DR to my longsuffering Dominican friends... Ay, concho! I feel like an idiot now!

Now, I am beginning to realize that there is a hidden wealth of culture out there to be discovered. BUT WHY IS IT HIDDEN? What else do I not know? What else have I missed these last 4 years? Art? Literature?

Please people of Dominican Republic, you have soooo much MORE to give other than sandy beaches and the stachato pumping bachata on the commercial radio. Please enlighten me! And others like me who want to look beyind the Potemkin artificiality of the All Inclusive Resorts.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Voyager, I've been enjoying reading your contributions. Unlike many visitors to the DR you are able to see that there is much more to the country beyond the AIs and the expat enclaves.

Before I start sounding like AZB, ;) let me try and answer your questions. I think the fact that visitors to the DR are not exposed to the broad spectrum of DR culture in AIs is a lot to do with the profile (or perceived profile) of people who patronise them. The country is marketed as a sun sea and s... destination and it is assumed (correctly or not) that the visitor is here to have fun and is not interested in the higher-brow end of the cultural spectrum. But come to think of it, apply this to any mass market destination. Is the tourist on a beach holiday in Cancun encouraged to read Carlos Fuentes or go to a classical concert? Is the package tourist to Benidorm made aware of the existence of Lorca or Goya? The difference with the DR comes in when we consider that both Spain and Mexico also market their countries to the higher end of the market and attract tourists who are interested in the country's culture, history and architecture. The DR needs to develop this side of their marketing, of that there is no doubt.

In the DR you are not really exposed to it unless you live there, especially in one of the two major cities, or spend a little longer there.

DR1 does have a diary of cultural events like the one you mention in your post. DR1 posters like Formosano often provide information about classical music in the capital and there have been threads about Dominican writers and artists on the forums as well. As you suspect, there is a whole lot more to discover: art, literature, theatre and different types of music beyond beach resort bachata and merengue.

Chiri
 

Voyager

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Mar 1, 2004
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Thanx, Chiri, for your nice and informative reply! I?ll keep an eye out for info from Formosano and I?ll check the diary on DR1.

Now, I am off to Thesaurus for coffee and book browsing.
 

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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Voyager said:
Last night (24 Aug) I went to a concert in Teatro Nacional. The Orquesta Filarmonica de Santo Domingo played ?Melodias de Mi Tierra?. It was fantastic!

The conductor, the charismatic Mr Amaury S?nchez did the unusual thing and talked about the music on a few occasions during the evening.

Why haven?t I seen anything in brochures etc about Dominican music other than the commercial merengue and bachata pumped out by the radio stations?

Listen to ?Fantasia Criolla?by Mr B. Bustamante! Fantastic! Or ?San Antonio?, a soft merengue by Nico Lora. Great!

Finally, I find Dominican music that I really like! Where can I find more of this?

It only goes to show the great spectrum of Dominican culture, IF YOU CAN FIND IT!!! I had no clue of this kind of music until yesterdays concert. And I have been complaining about ?lack of culture?in DR to my longsuffering Dominican friends... Ay, concho! I feel like an idiot now!

Now, I am beginning to realize that there is a hidden wealth of culture out there to be discovered. BUT WHY IS IT HIDDEN? What else do I not know? What else have I missed these last 4 years? Art? Literature?

Please people of Dominican Republic, you have soooo much MORE to give other than sandy beaches and the stachato pumping bachata on the commercial radio. Please enlighten me! And others like me who want to look beyind the Potemkin artificiality of the All Inclusive Resorts.

I think that this problem persist because the major cities of the country are not real tourist destinations. Santo Domingo resembles something like a tourist destination, but because the city lacks a beach its mostly avoided by huge numbers of tourists.

The reality is that unless the DR begins to market its cities as an optional cultural vacation destination (in addition to the beach vacations of the AIs and the up and coming Eco-tourism). Once people around the world are given a glimpse of the cultural richness that is here, they will probably start to flock here for that and the DR will become known as an all around destination.

Of course, that means that we are going to have to clean up our cities, improve the urban infrastructure, and improve the services. Then again, that's not a bad thing either.

I always had this idea or dream seeing planes chock full of "cultural tourist" landing at the Cibao International and spending a few nights in Santiago on vacation. They learn about the culture of the masses, the middle class, and the elite. They take day excursions to the local farms and mountains. Then, they end their vacation in grand style at a luxurious AI along the coast. That to me is the perfect vacation and how vacations should be marketed and done!