Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursday, December 9, 19711
Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, December 9, 1971
Mika O'
Away
into
it
all'
Comments on review
By MARK DILLEN
Occasionally, the world's ap-
pointed problem-solvers forget
how closely their own foibles
and predicaments resemble those
of their counterparts in past
generations. When this happens,
an evening of Gilbert and Sul-
livan will suffice to show a par-
ticular strain of commonality
running through Western man's
uneven past. Sharpened by W.S.
Gilbert's merciless exposing of
his society's absurdities, the
fluffy - if wholesomely melod-
ic - pot-pourri of songs Arthur
Sullivan fancied are not so
quickly dismissed as irrelevant
reminders of 19th century Eng-
land.
So it is with The Mikado, per-
haps the most successful of the
duo's many operettas, in .convey-
ing society's enduring absurdi-
ties - all behind the facade of
medieval Japan. What we are
treated to is one of Gilbert's
typically perceptive reminders
that in teaching society its neu-
roses - the most effective me-
dium is light-handed satire
where reality's image is altered
only in the slightest degree from
its model..
The trick, of course, is keeping
the comient light-handed in its
wooing an innocent maiden
seems innocuous enough to 'cause
no one heavy thoughts about
the state of our society, if you
look close enough at The Mi-
kado's lines, the danger of over-
working Gilbert's amazingly
still-contemporary swipes at im-
perial England is present
Tickets still available
There are still about 700 tickets available for tomorrow night's
Free John Freedom raily, to be held in Crisler arena. The tickets
go on sale at 11 a.m. this morning, and the box office will close
at 3:30 p.m.
interpretation. Which in turn,
brings us to Gilbert and Sulli-
van Society's production of The
Mikado and" how well it succeed-
ed in avoiding this pitfall.
The answer is quite well.
Though the story of a Japanese
prince fleeing an ugly court'
dame's advances in favor of
enough.
The many-titled Pooh-Bah -
a corrupt public official who as-
sumes the duties of several town
positions and argues each inter-
est in 'feeding his own greedy
nature, is common enough . in
today's society to have stilting
effect on the narrative's pro-
gression if overdone in the
slightest. He advises the town's
lord high executioner to splurge
the city's funds on his wedding
with "Don't worry, the city will
have to pay for it." As if to
testify to his worthy character,
Pooh-Bah adds, "I also retail
state secrets at a very low price."
If this were not enough, hu-
manity is sacrificed for society's
status as an execution is, or-
dered performed within a month
or the city will be reduced to
the rank of a village. Responds
the executioner gleefully, "I've
got a list of society's offenders
who never will be missed - it
doesn't matter who is on the
list, "they never will be missed."
But somehow, we are spareda
the agony of sitting through a
two-and-one-half hour, chronicle
of society's enduring failings by
the players' careful and even
performances. Particularly not-
able was that of H. D. Cameron
as Ko-Ko, the executioner, play-
ing the comedic lead to its full-
est As with most Gilbert and
Sullivan, the characters'are best
portrayed without the actor try-
ing to find some hidden mystery
in the character for his portray-
al. Cameron correctly maximizes
the humor - and thus the so-
cial message - simply through
effective expressiveness. James
Bryan and Ashly Putnam suffi-
ciently fulfill the remaining im-
portant lead roles, portraying
both the prince and his maiden
with vigorous innocence.
But, as always, the main
credit Js reserved for Gilbert
and Sullivan, who grant us one
direct comment on our society:
"It's an unjust world," says the
Mikado, "and virtue is triumph-
ant only in theatrical perform-
ances."
To the Daily;
Once more The Daily has
proved itself to be outstanding.
Unfortunately, in this case, it is
out standing in the cold. I refer
to the "review" of Antony and
Cleopatra which appeared in
The Daily (Thursday, Dec. 2).
While most others have found
the production to be a great suc-
cess, the interpretataions and
improvisations of Dr. Berguin
to be pleasing, and the perform-
ances of the actors inspiring,
The Daily managed to find a
reviewer of truly questionable
credentials, and set him to the
task of reviewing one of Shakes-
peare's most intricate and in-
triguing plays.
And what a "review" he pro-
duced. A greater piece of vin-
dictive, talentless, and truly con-
fused and uninspired writing can
only stem from a total miscom-
prehension of the work. But in
any event, I salute you, and
your persistence in publishing
such unequaled reviews. Perhaps
it, would be funny, if it weren't
so sad.
Sincerely,
K. Jacobs
December 3, 1971
To The Daily:
The function of a reviewer,
according to definition, is to
criticize and enlighten by means
of an intelligent opinion. This
is not to be confused with (a)
telling the story and thereby de-
stroying the curiosity of the
reader or (b) insulting or prais-
ing a production for no appar-
ent reasons. In my four years at
the University, I have read only
a few reviews in The Daily in
which the writer stated any-
thing that was not for the ex-
press purpose of drawing atten-
tion to himself.
A case in. point is the recent
review of Antony and Cleopatra,
the production by the University
Players. I'fail to understand how
The Daily can maintain its in-
tegrity by publishing a theatri-
cal review by one whose view of
the theater and his function it'
is is so obviously distorted. Since
it is the underlying concept of
the director which determines
the final shape of a play, the
reviewer might have explained
his disagreement with this con-
cept to somewhat constructive
ends. Instead, he wasted his time
displaying an adolescent preoc-
cupation with malicious insult.
The products of the Univer-
sity Players certainly are not up
to those of a professional com-
pany, but they have never
claimed to be. There is some-
thing quite unjust about hav-
ing judgement passed on six
weeks of the intensive effort of
many people toward a produc-
tion by an insecure little boy.
Thank you,
Lisa Goodman
AT STATE & LIBERTY
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Cleveland an ez ust not
what Cleveland and Szell were
By DONALD SOSIN
When such prestigious forces
as the Cleveland Orchestra and
Pierre Boulez team up, one tends
to expect great things. Sadly,
this was not the case in their
performance, last night in Hill
Aud. as part of the Choral Un-
ion Series of the University Mu-
'sical Society. The late George
Szell brought the orchestra to
a pinnacle of perfection, which
Boulez did 'not succeed in
matching. From the many re-
cordings that the orchestra
made under Szell, one knows
'how sensitive a group they can
be; here though, -their playing
was routine for the most part,
and failed to meet the high'
standards that Szell worked for.
In looking for reasons for this,
one must turn to Boulez. He is
a man of utmost precision, both
in his composition and in his
conducting. But grace was lack-
ing in his approach to the works
we heard last night.
Jeux, a ballet by Debussy, a
milestone in the use of materials
and coloristic effects as a de-
terminant in ideas, changes fre-
quently in mood, but this should
not prevent a feeling of contin-
uity. The scenario of the ballet
is about a tennis game, and
Debussy propels the listener from
one side of the court to the oth-
er, so to speak, in his constantly
shifting ideas. But instead of
observing an on-going match, I
felt as though the server were
constantly double-faulting. This
may work, well if there -is ac-
tion on the stage to carry out
that type of apprbach, but to
enjoy the work only from an
audio standpoint, one needs to
feel one is going someplace.
Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin
caused quite a scandal when 'it
first appeared, and he had prob-,
lems getting it performed. The
sordid plot of the pantomime.
obscured the work's broader at-
tempt to continue the love-
death struggle with which Wag-
ner and Schoenberg had dealt.
The music is in Bartok's early
(1918), jagged style and con-
HUMBLE PRICE
PROUD
tains many striking moments -
the entrance of the. two youths,
the siren-like clarinet solo that
depicts 'the girl attracting the
youth, the stabbing of the Man-
darin. Boulez' version captured
the power of these moments,
and many others; much of the
work's interest lies in balance
problems, -though, aind I am not
in any position to comment on
any solutions he found as my
spot in the auditorium was on
the far right, where only about
a third' of the ensemble could
be heard with any 'clarity.
As for Schumann's Symphony
No. 3 ."Rhenish"), let me urge
any readers who enjoyed last
night's performance to 'sit down
with Szell's recording and learn
what can actually be done with
the work. The slow movement
and Finale are superb in their
subtlety, a factor woefully miss-
ing last night. Romantic music,
especially Schumann's and
Brahms, falls flat if underneath
the sweep of sound the musi-
cians do not feel moved by what
they are playing. While I do not
pretend to have read the
thoughts of the orchestra, I
would gather that they were not
very much into the music. Bou-
lez' phrasing dulled numerous
refined moments that Szell no
doubt worked foir hours to
achieve. The orchestra unques-
tionably has the ability to do
great things; it is a shame that
we were not treated to some of
them.
JCL ,
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