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THE JEWISH NEWS
Side Story or Les Miserables.
Stomp sold out — twice.
Those plays which tackled
Jewish themes or featured Jews
as characters were few: The
Fisher weighed in with Angels
In America and The Sisters
Rosensweig, and the Jewish En-
semble Theatre revived The Di-
ary of Anne Frank. Ironically, the
prominent Old Testament char-
acter Joseph, with his colorful
coat, now playing at the Mason-
ic in the Lloyd Webber/Rice ver-
sion is about as Jewish as a DAR
tea party. As reincarnated by
Donny Osmond, he would be
happier at a tent revival than at
an Israel Bonds dinner.
The two Fisher outings were
not box office hits, though they
deserved to be. Their virtues as
plays were amply rewarded by
the prize-givers. Sisters elo-
quently and sentimentally spun
out a funny, truthful account of
three sibs, each with her "cri de
coeurs" — their identities as
women and Jews tied together
by Wendy Wasserstein's waspish
(no pun intended) humor. Angels
In America, subtitled A Gay Fan-
tasia, was misleadingly promot-
ed as a gay play. In fact, from Act
I scene I (of Part I), the essential,
underlying conflict of Jewish
alienation, guilt and misery and
the subsequent "sturm and
drang" of its Jewish protagonist,
Louis Ironson, clearly establish-
es this play within the ranks of
Jewish literature.
Anne Frank, though, may
have gone deepest in the vein
this year. Set up for the usual
run, JET was bombarded by re-
quests for school performances:
the usual two turned into 12.
Says publicist Sue Terebelo, "It's
like the Wendy's commercial,
`Make the burgers and they'll
come."' The unsolicited requests
came.
According to Evelyn Orbach of
JET (and Mrs. Van Daan of Di-
ary of Anne Frank), the response
has been "phenomenal." There
were 25 "well-attended regular
performances and 12 school per-
formances, with 28 schools and
2,500 students attending." Each
school performance was followed
by a "talk-back." Some children
asked, "Is this really true?"
What is true: the arts can edu-
cate, enlighten. What else is true?
The Detroit community prefers
its shows big and its Jews more
like Donny Osmond than Louis
Ironson (played by Peter Birken-
head).
See you in '96 which opens
with Camping Out With Tom
and Henry at Meadow Brook,
which, I hear, has anti-Semitic
sentiments expressed by its pro-
tagonists. I hope you'll see it and
let me know what you think.
Michael H. Margolin reports on
the arts. He's worked in radio,
television and community
theater.
®cf4)zit.
Bagel Barometer
Outstanding 10
Very Good
Good
Fair
A Classical Look at '95
JOHN GUINN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
A
s 1995 draws to a close, a
backward look shows that,
despite some glitches, it
was a fairly good year for
classical music in the Detroit area.
There is no such thing as a per-
fect performance, of course. If
splendid musicians leave us with
a • substantial
recording legacy. Q9
Garrick Ohlsson's Traversal
of Chopin
Comment: The American pi-
anist's decision to perform
all of Chopin's solo piano
music in six concerts
looked like a tour-de-force.
In performance, the first
three concerts turned out
to be among the most sat-
isfying keyboard experi-
ences in
years.
Jerzy Semkow con-
ducting Mahler's "Res-
urrection" Symphony
with the DSO
Maxim Vengerov: The Russian-born violinist is
one of the hottest young classical fiddlers.
there were, there wouldn't be any
reason to return to an auditori-
um.
The hope that we will experi-
ence a near-perfect performance
is what keeps drawing us back.
Below are some that came very
close, and a few that fell far short.
Violinist Maxim Vengerov
performing Shostakovich
with Neeme Jarvi and the
DSO
Comment: The debut of this 20-
year-old RuSsian-Jewish violinist
turned out to be (despite the fact
that DSO management sullied his
appearance by cramming him into
a program lasting two-and-a-half
hours) the most impressive debut
I've experienced in more than 35
r\
years of attending
DSO concerts.
Cleveland Quartet's Farewell
Concert at Orchestra Hall
Comment: The Cleveland four-
some (violinists William Preucil
and Peter Salaff, violist James
Dunham and cellist Paul Katz)
demonstrated how much they'll
be missed as they disband, most
amicably. We're fortunate these
Comment: Semkow's in-
sights into Mahler's mam-
moth paean to eternal life
were matched by his in-
sights into how to get the
DSO to play like gods,
even though the vocal
forces were not
quite up to 40 Q.)
par.
Beaux Arts Trio per-
forming Schubert
Comment: The Beaux Arts (vio-
linist Ida Kavafian, cellist Peter
Wiley and pianist Menachem
Pressler) are about as close to per-
fection as you get this side of par-
adise. They showed that in their
annual visit to Orchestra Hall
by playing Schubert's E-flat
Major Trio as if it had been com-
posed specifically
for them.
Neeme Jarvi's conducting of
Shostakovich's "Leningrad"
Symphony
Comment: The DSO's valuable
music director is often praised
for his ebullient, outgoing musi-
cianship. Yet, he dug into
Shostakovich's dour reaction to
the Nazi advance on Russia with
a perceptive gusto that showed
the.wide range of
cl)
k. 'Zak- .00
1 :
his gifts.
SOME LOSERS:
Violinist Itzhak Pen man's
John Guinn has written about
classical music for more than
20 years.