From Key West to Havana:
Sweet Days for the ‘Hemingway Suite’
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Two Key West groups flew to Cuba last week with about a dozen cultural delegates meeting with Cuban counterparts while an equal number being friends of Bill Lorraine.
Both groups arrived in Havana to attend a performance of Key West composer Bill Lorraine’s “Hemingway Suite,” an orchestral homage to the writer who lived both in Key West and just outside of Havana.
Lorraine’s music was performed on Saturday Dec. 6, at the Teatro Marti opera house in conjunction with the Havana Film Festival. Cuba’s famed female conductor Zenaida Romeu led what has been described as “a lovely performance” to much applause.
“Obviously the music was the highlight for me,” Lorraine told Konk Life upon his return. “It was performed flawlessly and with great energy by the Old Havana Orchestra. I am still walking on clouds.”
Among the 700 individuals in the audience were members of a Key West Friday lunch group who are friends of Lorraine plus delegates from the Custom House and a tour group from Stone Soup Gallery and the Studios of Key West. Ed DeMore of Key West was the delegation coordinator.
A large contingent of high-ranking Cuban officials from the Ministry of Culture were also at the concert, led by Alfredo Ruiz Roche, Director of International Relations at the Ministry of Culture.
“We all attended an after-concert cocktail party at the rooftop bar at the Saratoga Hotel, overlooking old Havana,” reports Lorraine.
“Our effort at building a cultural bridge was a big success!”
Lorraine’s wife, Ann, collected about 15 Key West-themed gifts for the delegates, all put together in tote bags and “made beautiful,” in Bill’s words, “with Ann’s artistic skills.” The Cubans were apparently very touched by this gesture of goodwill “and a relaxed friendship soon developed among the two groups.”
Ann told Konk Life, “The best thing about the trip for me was seeing Bill’s happiness as his musical dream came true – the concert of his symphonic composition, ‘The Hemingway Suite,’ witnessed by hundreds of classical music lovers including many of his Key West friends. I felt privileged to be a part of it,” adding that, “We were all ambassadors for Key West. We toured and worked and partied together and by the end of the week we were a tight family team.”
An illustration of this cultural connection at work was a visit to the National Art Museum, vividly described for Konk Life by Ann. “After a personable gentleman named Omar — their Cuban Tom Luna! — led us on a tour of the museum’s art, he and a retired architect and historian, Orestes del Castillo, joined our art delegates with six Cuban delegates from the museum.
“Everyone at the table looked a little stiff at first, because we didn’t speak each other’s languages, but when we gave them each our big gift bag, a Cuban delegate rolled in a cart full of beautiful tabletop books about the art museum and gave one to each of our delegates at the table.”
As the Cuban delegates spoke in Spanish to the Americans seated across from them, Omar and Orestes began translating, “flawlessly, smoothly and fast. Soon we all forgot we were speaking in different languages and, looking at each other in the eye, began planning all sorts of cultural exchanges. We laughed and joked and became friends, hugging each other goodbye like close friends as we left.”
And the weather was “as warm as the welcome we got from all the Cuban people,” added the Lorraines, crediting Ed DeMore and his planning and support team for the smoothness of events throughout the trip.
As for reactions to Havana and to Cuba itself from the Key West delegates, who included members of the Key West Arts and Historical Society, Tropic Cinema, the Hemingway House and the Studios of Key West, Konk Life gleaned and transcribed the following impressions from our colleague, Shirrel Rhoades:
No soldiers were to be seen in Havana, and only a few policemen. A trip to the Revolution Museum displayed tanks and MIGs and ground-to-air missiles left over from the 1960s.
Restored parts of Old Havana are scenic, replete with statues amid tree-studded squares, monolithic museums, clusters of outdoor tables, local women in colorful garb posing for photos, musicians at open-air bars, dogs in cutesy costumes, women displaying cigars bigger than a billy club, and throngs of tourists crowding the cobblestone streets.
Michael Gieda of the Art and Historical Society was hanging onto the words of historian Orestes del Castillo who showed off the area to the cultural delegates.
Yet just a few blocks over were dug-up streets that defy traffic, idle men lounging in doorways, stray dogs and crowded tenements. As one Key West group walked down a narrow side street, several men in a doorway called to the tour guide in Spanish, asking her if she was showing her tourists “the real Havana.”
At Finca La Vigia, now the Hemingway Museum, the delegates got to go inside the house, usually forbidden, with tourists allowed only to peek through the windows. Mary’s Room, as the master bedroom is called, contained her gardening and cat books. There was also a library with books floor-to-ceiling, hand-painted bullfighting posters, a Picasso sculpture and taxidermied animal heads. Every room in the house seemed to have an array of books and hunting trophies. Out back, where the tennis courts used to be, the boat Pilar sits on blocks, restored, the green paint looking fairly fresh, with “Pilar Key West” painted on its yellow escutcheon. Buried nearby are Hemingway’s dog Black and three others. His cats are thought to be buried just behind the main house.
This was the first visit to Finca La Vigia for David Gonzales, curator of Key West’s Hemingway Home, so he and his counterpart had much to talk about, separating off to exchange contact info.
We also had a tour of the National Museum of Fine Art, plus some rum-sipping at the Havana Club and late-night music at the Buena Vista Social Club, also daiquiris at El Floridita and mojitos served everywhere.
Last word: At the Saturday-night concert, a Ministry of Culture official explained that the box neighboring to ours was where Raul Castro often sat.
“Can we sit there?” teased Rita Linder of Key West.
“No,” came his serious reply.
[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]
Such a great story of ART as ambassador. Felicidades to Bill and Ann Lorraine for a successful concert performance and to all the artists and representatives of the arts from Key West. Art transcends politics as so beautifully illustrated by the mutual respect and admiration all the players showed one another. I hope the future hold more artistic (and otherwise) cross pollination of our two islands.