THE MICHIGAN DAILY"
Sunday, February 16, 1\969
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, February 16, 1q69
I I I I
her slips showing
By JIM PETERS
If this were Fargo, North Dako-
ta, and not Ann Arbor, the so-
called cultural capital of the Mid-
west, last night's production of
ovsky. Wrong notes flew every-
where, and the tempo was errati^.
The group of musicians was so
small that even the loudspeake s
Icould not embellish the thin
sound
tional tenor. One could say he was
very good, if melodrama were
aesthetically valuable.
J. B. Davis' Escamillo was
strong and convincing in the
Bizet's Carmen might have been Couplts Ut Is scenes to act iii
acceptable. But as I sat in Hill But Nancy Williams as Carnecn with Don Jose were nonsense, be-
Aud., which was filled to SRO did her best through all this. Piny- cause of the Errol Flynn staging
capacity, the whole performance ing her role of sexy wench with and the foolish lyrics. The other
seemed more insulting than any- unrestrained abandon, attempting characters were neither .better nor
thing else. to inspire her gypsy pals who worse; both Frasquita and Mer-
didn't really seem to realize that cedes matched Carmen's power.
This company, the Goldovsky Lilla Pastia's tavern in Act II was Michaela was unreal, more the
Grand Opera Theater (sic), in- asgigsptave.nrinayhn hIwtfam
cludes many fine singers, but the a swinging place. Virgin Mary than the sweet farm-
list of problems in their perform- Miss Williams was in fine voice
ance is so long and so important throughout. Her rich-timbred so- There were unbelievable liber-
that the fact of fine singing be- prano easily handled the husky ties taken with Bizet's music, ap-
comes negligible. whispers Carmen is wont to come propriate to what, I suppose,
The first element of this musical out with. But nothing was fan- Opera Theatre" stands for;rbut
disaster was the libretto. I have tastic. Her "Haberna" was a ie- after last night I'd rather trust
nothing against performing opera quate and melodic, but she lept Bizet than Boris Goldovsky.
in English, but too often the trans- the tempo slow and wasn't very Polished mediocrity disintegrat-
lations used are either too awk- powerful. ing at times into plain bad the-
war for the melodic lines to flow Don Jose sung by Allen Cath- atre and bad music is the only
smoothly, or else the English ver- cart couldn't have been more typ- fitting description,
sion is so trite and downright ical of the warbling hyper-emo- Ann Arbor should know better,
corny that hearing it sung is
amusing.
Americans just think too little ENDS TONIGHT
of their language. Whereas Euro-
peans are used to it, American
audiences become uncomfortable
hearing their everyday conversa-
tion sung to familiar "classical"
tunes..And such gems as "Torea-
dor, get ready," and "My profes-
sion is killing bulls and I'm a busy
man," both culled from many
other silly lines, did little to em-
phasize the grandeur that is
opea.
Also, the staging and costumes
were tired and sorrowfully con-
ventional. There's innocent Don
Jose in his redrwhite-and-blue
good guy's outfit; there's Carmen
in her low-cut gypsy dress with
hundreds of slips showing, a cos-
tume once fetching but now pretty
boring. At least the idea of Car-
men keeping her castenets in the
bodice of her gown was an at-
tempt at some originality !
Musically things weren't much
better. The orchestra was pathetic. or
The first crashes of the overture
were more like unenthusiastic "PA LACE OF PLEASURE"
thuds. They played badly, not to IN COLOR AND DUEL PROEmTla t
mention at all the lacklustre in- I OO N ULPOETO!
terpretation of conductor Gold- A SENSUAL SPACE ODYSSEY FEATURING THE VOICE
- -AND POETRY OF LEONARD COHEN
"Contains some of the most beautiful color sequences ever
filmed .. it abundantly demonstrates that split-screen techniques
can be used for something more artistic than a "Chelpea, Girls."
Singer =-Chicago Tribune
also on the same program:
ESTAURANT "LAPIS" by James Whitney, winner of innumerable awards, the
most highly cclaimed psychedelic film ever made, music by
Sponsored by: Ravi Shanker. W. C. FIELDS in "The Dentist." LAUREL AND
0O Alice's Restaurant HARDY in "Two Tars," silent classic featuring fast cars and fast
The Ark women with a great comic'destruction scene. Also BETTY BOOP
Smitty s cartoon and GENIE AUTREY, "America's Singing Cowboy," in a
00 00 000
o 0
c THE 0
o ENTERTAINER6
b0
John Osborne
o Lydia Mendelssohn theatreo
February 19-22 0
0 presented by
0o Department of speech0
0 University Players0
BOX OFF CE
0 Feb. 17, 18, 12:30-5 P.M.
Feb. 19, 22, 12:30-8 P.M.
0 TICKETS0
Feb. 19, 20, $1,25, $1.75
0 Feb. 21, 22, $1.75, $2.25
ALL PERFORMANCES 8100 P.M.
o 0 0 0 o=0=0 C
1
I
i
6w
Blues
0
anyone has yet gone
frankness about sex"
Sheilah Graham
"Jean Seberg, in the role of a tragic nymphomaniac
would make a nostalgic dreamer out of the least
poetical of men ... She is an actress to make many
of our actresses feel- wistful if not envious."
Rene Bernard, Elle
v
7
I1
MON. 7, 9
Ih
DON'T
MISS
THIS
ONE!
io
i
Union, DBsall -Sunday, Feb. 16---2 P.M.
is
0