PAGE TWO
'I HE MICHIGAN DAILY
THURSDAY, MARCH 17. 1966
PAGE TWO THE MICHIGAN DAILY THURSDAY, MARCH 17. 1986
MUSIC
Exaggerated Acting, Stale Wit,
Trite Dialogue Spoil 'Rosalinda'
POET EXPRESSES EMOTIONS:
Simpson Writes Vivid Images
By BETSY COHN
Working with overly masticated
humor, trite dialogue, and stale
wit, the School of Music. Opera
Department hashed out the Rein-
hardt version of Strauss' "Die
Fledermaus" last evening. Despite
its occasional bits of fresh hum-f
or and bright spots of carica-"
ture, the production was a disap-
pointing and undistinguished bit
of Teutonic Gilbert and Sullivan.
The plot, vaguely reminiscent of
everything from Dryden to Lucille
Ball, is the ring-a-round-about
story of husband and wife falling
in love again. ' Rosalinda (Noel
Rogers) is being courted by Al-
fredo (Kenneth Scheffel), the'
grand tenor of the Austrian Opera.
Despite the vigorous efforts of
her wayward husband, Gabriel Ei-
senstein (Ralph Herbert).
When Alfredo wails one "ROSA-
LINDA" too many, Eisenstein loses
his wayward temper and slaps the
bristly headed baritone. This leads
to Eisenstein's arrest; which is
further complicated by Orlovsky's
party (Richard Le Suoeur) in
which everyone comes in disguis-
es. Adele (Nancy Hall), the Ei-
senstein maid comes as an ac-
tress; Eisenstein comes as a mar-
quis. There are a number of com-
ical and not-so-comical errors.
mistaken identities and so on, un-
til, alas, all are resigned.
The portrayal of Eisenstein as
a lecherous and loving character,
is delightfully strong, entertaining
and convincing. Noel Adams, the
Wednesday and Friday edition of
Rosalinda, is a stately and aggres-
sive actress whose singing is en-
joyable (although a bit strident
at times) and whose acting is dy-
namic. Adele, the maid, makes a
frothy portrayal of a gurgling
housemaid whose strong dramatic
device seems to be a somewhat in-
souciant pout. Nevertheless, her
gushes are precepitated into an
amusing scene as she masquerades
at the ball as "Miss Schultz," the
actress waiting to be discovered."
Prince Orlovsky is a charming
portrayal of a toothy and some-
what bland moron whose biggest
defect (aside from his smile) is
that "he's always had everything."
As a result, he is slightly bored at
his own party and wonders if
"there's something better open."
Frank (John Henkel), the pris-
on warden who attempts to lock
up Rosalinda's husband, but gets
her would-be suitor instead, plays
his part with blundering, heavy-
handed grace. The stuttering law-
yer (Milton Bailey) makes a ner-
vously strong and impressive pres-
entation..
The acting- was commendable
though the exaggeration and af-
fectation tended to reduce the
quality. More disappointing was
the dancing (especially the two
lead ballet dancers), some of the
singing (which was apparently
sacrificed for more harmonious
acting) and the orchestra led by
Prof. Josef Blatt (which was at
best mediocre and at worst quite
poor).
Not only did it appear quite
unable to play together, but there
seemed to be some difficulty with
the oboes, strings and horns, in
playing accurately. There were
several troublesome moments when
the Viennese waltz died embarras-
sing deaths as cues were miscal-
culated and notes were exhaled
off pitch.
Another disenchanting feature
was the sets, which made Rosa-
linda's living room look like a
sleazy Paris brothel with costumes
By LINNEA HENDRICKSON
Louis Simpson perfectly fit his
own description of a poet in his
vibrant reading of his poems last
night in the UGLI Multipurpose
Room.
Simpson sees a poet as being
one who looks at things and sees
them as they really are, expressing
the emotions they arouse by creat-
ing images.
In an interview, Simpson ex-
pressed some of his ideas on
poetry. When he first thinks of
a poem, he thinks of it in terms
of images and rhythm. "A poem
must have the feeling that the
ending is inevitable." Simpson
feels he has been influenced by
different poets during different
periods. Auden, whom he can ro
longer stand, he once adored. He
greatly admired Yeats and Eliot.
Now he feels and hopes he is mov-
ing beyond influences.
Although he is the author of
one novel, "Riverside Drive," and
plans to begin writing another
one "maybe next week," he feels
he can express himself more easily
in poetry than in prose.
Poets Mood
To write a poem one must be
in the proper mood. Simpson says
he must be "feeling good, be able
to look into things and see them
in new relationships." Simpson
stresses the importance of feeling,
emotions and passion. "But you
can't write a poem," he says,
"when one is in love to the point
of distress." Strong feelings can
only be expressed in a poem by
remembering them.
Simpson says he wants to write
simple poetry, not spectacular.
This he defines as poetry that says
things which sound true and.
which people want to hear, but
aren't true.
Simpson feels a poet must
change. He gave up rhyme and
meter because he felt it was time
to try to "make another kind of
music." The poems he read traced
his development and change as a
poet. He began with early World
War II poems, which he said he'd
thought were outmoded, but which
he now sees coming back in style.
The second group of poems, with
"Walt Whitman at Bear Moun-
tain" as the turning point broke
away from rhyme and meter.
Among the poems in this group
he read two love poems, "Summer
morning" which expresses a ,feel-
ing of passing time, and "Birch"
which compares the woman he
loves to a birch tree.
Supernatural
Sometimes the poet looks at a
commonplace scene long and in-
tensely enough to make it take
on a supernatural meaning. And
sometimes said Simpson, he has
this crazy thing happen when hu"-
apparently made to match.
It is true that this is an 18th
century drama; taking this into
consideration, the dialogue and
guffawwing slapstick can be for-
given. What is questionable was
the enthusiastic audience response
which included giggles, snorts and
enthusiastic approval.
As a whole, the performance had
a few gnawing annoyances which
detracted from its sometimes
clever use satire on Austrian so-
ciety, manners and people. When
the singing was decent and the
orchestra was adequate, the sets
could be ignored . . . but.-the pro-
duction, and choice of text was
that which could. not be over-
looked.
For an opera department which
has presented something of the
structure of Alban Berg's Woz-
aeck, "Rosalinda" represented a
moderate piece of vaudeville. Sing-
ers, orchestra and producers, and
the department could have done
better; it is very unfortunate that
they did not.
mans are not moving, but uncon-
scious things are. Things start
moving outwards. He got the idea
from the story of Moses where the
staff slips from the Pharoah's
hand, and as a snake, slithers
across the floor. The poem he
wrote about this "crazy thing"
ends with the image of a plane
with its metal wings flying
through the air.
He finished by reading 4"Sacred
Objects" which was inspired by
Chekhov. the author Simpson ad-
mires most of all.
In response to questions by the
audience, Simpson stated, "Bob
Dylan is not a poet." Furthermore,
he added, "Most college students
don't know much about poetry."
But he stressed he did like college
students.
PH. 483-4680
ax"c Ox.,CARPENTER ROAD
FREE CAR HEATERS
STARTS FRIDAY
DORIS DAY-ROD TAYLOR
' CinemaScope -Color by DE LUXE
Shown at 7:10- 1:40
A2.. h . nty-Ftox P.. ..
Shown at 9:20 Only
NOTICE:
Starting Friday-We Are
Open 7 Nites a Week
UNIVERSITY PLAYERS
Department of Speech
p
UAC-Creative Arts Festival
Saturday, March 19
THE NEW JAZZ COMES TO ANN ARBOR!
* THE NEW MUSIC, The Negro and America
3 :00-Panel Discussion-Free
-Multi-purpose Room, UGLI
* ARCHIE SHEPP QUARTET
8:00-Avant-Garde Jazz-$1.75
-Trueblood Auditorium
* SESSION-PARTY, Ron Brooks, host
10:30-Jom Session, Refreshments-75c
-VFW Hall, 314 E. Liberty
THE YEAR'S MOST EXCITING JAZZ EVENT!
DON'T MISS IT!
THIS WEEK!
ROSAbLINDA~t
8:00 P.M.
Lydia Mendelssoh
Theatre
SOL D OUlT!
t
Sights, Sounds Do1minate
Grate Sciety Produttion
The University of Michigan
Gilbert and Sullivan Society
Get your tickets NOW for
by Henrik Ibsen
*
presents
-By JEFFREY K. CHASE l
Just what does the word "art"
mean, anyway? Ever since the be-
ginning of the realization of the
existence of this phenomenon,I
philosophers have been in a quan-
dry concerning the requisites a
thing or event must possess to"
merit "art" as a label.
Thus, four like-minded compos-
er-philosophers living and working
in Ann Arbor have created a semi-
informal organization-the Grate
Society-whose aim is to present+
concerts and events which drawt
upon all aspects of our environ-
ment, emphasizing sights and
sounds. Has not the term "art"
lost . its function Has not "art"
been by now so thoroughly di-
vorced from ethics that its value
has disappeared?
Five Experiences Presented
The five experiences to be pre-
sented on their second annual con-
cert - The Grate Society Space
Program - were discussed briefly
by their respective composers: the
first piece, "Executive White Pa-
per," by guest composer, L. Baines
Johnson, is an audio-visual policy
statement recently released by the
White House in which a well-
'U' Enrollment
Grows Despite
Admission Cut
(Continued from Page 1)
sity could best serve the needs
of in-state students by concen-
trating on upperclass and grad-
uate education, along with re-
search. This plan for the Univer-
sity can be complemented by the
trend towards building more and
more community colleges, which
offer the first two years of under-
graduate education, he continued.
Future Growth
Smith declined to predict
whether future growth would be
centralized or of the small, de-
centralized, residential college
type. He did say, however, that
financing problems would not
mitigate against the possibility of
decentralized growth.
Smith explained that decen-
tralized growth is no more ex-
pensive than a centralized type,
because "you have to increase
physical facilities in both cases."
known figure discusses his viewsE
on matters of current interest to1
all members of the Great Society.
Andrew's "Flying Saucers Have1
Landed" (Tenth Symphony) is a
dynamic, multi-phased tableau
which combines images of the
composer's guilt-ridden sexual
fantasies as manifested in his
flying saucer phobia. Albright's
work, "Space Cadets: Disaster in
the Night Heavens," is a reaffir-
mation of the unreal worlds of
electronic music -and interstellar
travel, ending in a cataclysm which
represents the disgrace of both.
"Message from Uranus," by Mor-
ris, is the "modest" attempt of its
author to portray the religion of
100 years hence, after the human
race has conquered the moon and
Mars and other places. It is con-
tention that, religion .will lose all
fundtions ex&ept ' that of ritual,
which will even cease to be meta-
physical.
War and Destruction
Peck's "Lift-off from Cape
Cannabis" reaches out for the first
touchstone to psychic freedom.
The piece is a concerto for pipe,;
accompanied by live and remote
activities symbolic of war and de-
struction, performed by the Me-
morial Chorus of the Veterans of
the War on Poverty.
This second concert of the; Grate
Society will be presented Friday
at 9, p.m; in' the. VFW Ballroom.
Their first event, "A Birthday
Concert," was presented lastdfall, i
to rave notices. Next fall's produc-
tion, "Maximo," will tour the coun-.
try.
CINEMA
ruddigore,
March 23, 24, 25, 26 ... 8:00
& Sat. Matinee ... 2:00
TICKETS ON SALE 8 A.M.-5 P.M.
March 17 and 1 8... SAB Box Office
March 21-26 ... Lydia Mendelssohn
SAT. NIGHT-SOLD OUT
Thurs., $1.50; Fri. & Sat., $2 00; Sat. Mat. $1.00
'i
I I
Z
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U
t
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rmost daring extravaganza of modern theatre"
.GASSNER
ARIL 6-9
BOX OFFICE OPEN DAILY 12:30-8
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YES, ZENOBIA,
iJe 'Can te'rttP uot
presents: this weekend
presents
CARY
AUDREY
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FRI. and SAT.
7 and 9 P.M.
2ND HIT
WEEK
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HUMPHREY BOGART
FILM FESTIVAL
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Best Actress
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Designi
NOMINATIONS! -esgn
LAURENCE IIAVEY, DIRK BOGARDE
JULIE CHRISTIE
apowerful and bold motion picture...
made by adults... with adults... for adults
(a phantasmagora)
A DOUBLE FEATURE-
The CAINE
MUTINY
4
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and Casablanca
Auditorium A
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EVERYTHING ELSE, AS USUAL:
food, bear baiting, shaggy dogs, melvin and ignatz
ID required
one dollar per person
218 N. Division
i
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L.
GUILD HOUSE
802 M6nroe
FRIDAY, MARCH 18
NOON LUNCHEON DISCUSSION
OF GUILD RETREAT
BUFFET 25c
TOPIC: "THE NEW MORALITY"
FRIDAY EVENING 6 P.M.
COST INTERNATIONAL DINNER
Please call 662-5189 for Reservations (First 40)
O Come to see the fantastic Children's Art Exhibit
at Guild House.
ONLY 4 MORE DAYS
TODAY AT
7 AND 9 P.M.
NEXT
"JULIET OF THE SPIRITS"
at 4:00 a.m. this weekend, see the NEW SUPREMES
HESTER, HEPZIBAH, and PHOEBE
III
STARTS TODAY
DIAL 662-6264
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SHOWS AT 1:00-3:00
5:00-7:00 AND 9:05
I Il 1-1111''I'lgIg
-Algo
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"Mmi6l
UAC's CREATIVE ARTS FESTIVAL 1966
MARIA CoRVIN, a well-known English ac rs a h se o p r eut
ars has coeto perptat h
} story-_ telling ability of Karen Blixen,
the famous Danish author of Out of
Africa. The story is the dramatic story of
Sa woman who, through no fault of her
own, loses everything she as loved and
Thies TU IEGROULr
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