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