BRACK:New York trip was a delight for the ears and eyes

“Summer, Dune in Zeeland,” by Piet Mondrian

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  A weekend family trip to New York City was simply delightful, an adjective we never thought of using to describe the Big Apple.

The weather was moderate. People were relatively friendly.  The bagels and pizza were awesome. And two attractions provided a “wow” that still lingers.

First came the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of “Porgy and Bess,” the famous George Gershwin opera set in Charleston with the words, or libretto, by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin.  The production was everything — and more — that was recorded in a flattering review in The New York Times as a masterpiece of a “performance so authoritative and gripping.”

Noted critic Anthony Tommasini, “David Robertson led a vigorous yet nuanced performance, the finest conducting of ‘Porgy’ I’ve heard. From the start, with the bustling orchestral introduction, he never tried to jazz up the score superficially, plumbing the music for inner voices, pungent harmonies, layered orchestral strands and rhythmic complexities.”

Not only were the lyric performances by Eric Owens (Porgy), Angel Blue (Bess), Golda Schultz (Clara) and Denyce Graves (Maria) simply awe-inspiring, but the rotating set of a rundown Charleston mansion seemed to be its own looming character in the opera.   

Guggenheim Museum

The show, at the Met in Lincoln Center for the first time in almost 30 years, runs through Feb. 1, 2020.

Just as stimulating was a visit to the Guggenheim Museum where we saw paintings first shown in the South in the 1930s at the Gibbes Museum, and later at its Realm of Spirit show in 2016.

The New York museum displayed hundreds of pieces, including dramatic works by Kandinsky, Picasso, Modigliani, Bauer, Chagall and Leger that were purchased by mining industrialist Solomon Guggenheim.  Also enjoyable were pieces by Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler and Piet Mondrian.

This New York trip was music for our ears and sights to be seen time and time again.

TURNING TO STATEWIDE AFFAIRS, state legislators need to be a little bit like reporters in the days ahead as they consider the fate of Santee Cooper, the state-backed utility that fell into trouble when a project to build new nuclear reactors spectacularly died.

In 2020 as lawmakers consider the future of the utility, its power plants, its lakes and its prowess in economic development in our poor state, they need to be more objective.  They need to look at Santee Cooper’s fate from all sides and impacts, instead of rushing to political judgment that ignores fiscal common sense and opportunity costs. In other words, they don’t need to sell when the price may be low.  Might it not be better to fix whatever went wrong and hold on to the asset until it has more value?

The $9 billion failure in 2017 of the nuclear project between the minority partner, Santee Cooper, and its privately-held partner, SCE&G, led to lots of public angst — and rightfully so.  In the end, SCE&G was sold to Dominion Energy and a pack of state officials have had their sights on dumping Santee Cooper or turning over its management to someone else.  

With public trust in Santee Cooper at a low, many at the Statehouse have seemed eager to move on as corporate hawks have dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into lobbying efforts to get a crack at owning or running Santee Cooper.  Do you think they’d be circling like buzzards if they thought Santee Cooper and its assets were not worth it?  Maybe a better course would be to let the utility right its own leaky ship with a new approach to deal with what it characterizes as “challenging issues facing our company.”

In recent weeks, the gray lady of Santee Cooper seemed to wake up, unveiling a bold reform plan that includes paying down debt more quickly without rate increases, preserving energy reliability, reducing carbon emissions and increasing use of renewable solar energy by 1,000 megawatts, which is the equivalent of two medium power plants.  

When the time comes next session to consider Santee Cooper’s future, state legislators need to set aside preconceived notions.  They need to ignore the millions of dollars spent to influence them. And they need to do right by the taxpayers of South Carolina by objectively considering what’s best for the state.  Have open, not closed, minds on Santee Cooper’s future. To do less is to fail.

• Andy Brack’s latest book, “We Can Do Better, South Carolina,” is now available in paperback and for Kindle via Amazon.  
• Have a comment?  Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com