Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, March 28, 19710 Pc, geTwo / THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, March 28, 1 97~ theatre Arts Chorale: Up and coming nThrec? By DONALD SOSIN The Three-Penny Opera, pre- sented by the School of Music and the Department of Art, is continuing in Lydia Mendels- sohn Theatre Monday and Tues- day. Although the acting is of uneven quality, and the produc- tion sags in places, the opera is musically very fine and well worth seeing. Based on The Beggar's Opera, written by John Gay, in 1728, Three-Penny was updated by Bertold Brecht, and adapted in English by Marc Blitztein, with music by Kurt Weill. Weill's music was a turning point in opera in this century. Actually, it cannot really be termed an opera, for the nature of Brecht's theatre precludes this sort of formal situation. So, too, Weill would not tie himself down to a regular operatic format. His or- chestra, with clarinets, saxo- phones, brass, piano. harmonium and percussion, rather suggests the cabaret, the jazz band, and the American musical theatre. Weill was actually responsible for creating some of the latter, with shows such as Lady in the Dark and Street Scene. In Three-Penny, the music consists of straight songs, which some- times can become recitative- like, or, as in Mack's final solo, more extended and leaning to- ward the aria. The plot revolves around Mac- heath, or Mack the Knife, who is a big wheel in .the London underworld, his friends number- ing even the Police Commission- er. He is secretly wed to Polly, daughter of the beggar's friend, Mr. Peachum. When the latter discovers the marriage, he de- cides to get even with Mack, for he will not have the daughter of a respectable beggar consort- ing with a safecracker and sec- ond-storey man. Mack is im- prisoned, but escapes, only to be captured again, and condemned to hang. In a bitter final scene, he says farewell to all his friends, and then, in a Brech- tian twist, is saved by a procla- mation from the newly-crowned queen. The artificiality of the plot's construction is fully ex- posed at the end when Peachum addresses the audience and says that in order to provide a happy finish, Mack will be spared. But he makes it clear that this is not normally the case, and drives home Brecht's message about the unjustness of the class-differences in society, par- ticularly the German one he was writing for. Penny gift The whole tone of the opera is tremendously cynical, from Peachum's thriving beggar - li- censing office, to Mack's blithe disregard for any woman but the one he is with at a given moment, to Polly's stereotyped naivete. These three characters were well acted and sung in last night's performance (they are double cast) by Daniel Berry, Lesley Manring, and Samuel Chapin, respectively. Berry was exceptionally convincing as an actor; Manring was properly plastic and Chapin a cool Mack, although his speaking voice had a tendency to fall into one pat- tern and grow monotonous. Other notable characters were Robert Zajac as Reverend Kim- ball, Robert Armstrong as the Police Commissioner, and Wal- ter Richardson as Hookfinger Jake. These three were all in- strumental in adding zest to the parody of a wedding dinner in Act One. There were other de- lightful moments, such as the fight between Polly and Mack's other wife in Act Two. Other scenes did not fare so well, the brothel sequence and the final jail scene suffering from drop- ped lines, although there was a last-minute substitution in the former scene which was re- sponsible for some of this. The production was directed by Joseph Blatt and Ralph Her- bert. Blatt's orchestra was ex- cellent, and all the singers were in fine voice, although some of their acting left much to be de- sired, a crucial flaw in this opera which is not an opera, but a Brecht play with a lot of fine music. By PAUL CLARENDON The U-M Arts Chorale, under the direction of Maynard Klein, performed works by Mozart and Brahms in Hill Auditorium Fri- day night, and it seems as if this group has finally come into its own. The singing was the best in recent memory by the group, and the pick-up orches- tra from the School of Music was more solid than those heard in past Arts Chorale concerts. The program opened w i t h the Litaniae Lauretana, K. 109 by Mozart. Despite the fact that it was written at the age of 14, it is not an immature w o r k. Mozart, even in his early efforts, had a command of style a n d form that shows through here, and while it may not be strik- ingly original, it is no less pleas- ing for this. One interesting de- tail was the modal, low-key end- ing of the Agnue Dei, which did not really seem a definite fin- ish to the piece, and left the Mellow and enigmatic 'Pearls' audience in a quandary for sev- eral moments. The soloists were Roberta Alexander, Lynda Pryor, Wayne Brown and Edmund Ioliver, all from the School of Music; their singing had the refinement of tone quality which the choir, composed of nonmusic majors, lacked, but the contrast was ac- ceptable. In juxtaposition, with this early work was the last piece written by Mozart, the Requiem, K. 626. One of the masterpieces of the choral literature, it is somewhat more secular in style than Requiems that were to fol- low by Verdi, Berliz or Faure. More than one commentator has{ remarked upon resemblances to the Magic Flute. But it is none- theless a work of great power, from the opening Requiem and Kyrie to the awesome Dies Irae, the ethereal Recordare, beauti- fully sung by the soloists, (with Hugh Gulledge as tenor this time) to the solemn Iacrymosa. The choir sang quite well, with real feeling for the musi- cal language, and generally good dynamic contrasts. The soloists again were outstanding. It was a particular pleasure to hear Alexander who recently won a Grinnell scholarship and h a s been heard in numerous other performances on campus. Also Gulledge deserves credit f o r stepping in to take the place of John Martens, who was ill. The chief weakness, often noticeable in performances by Klein, was in keeping hold of the orchestra, which could get out of step on occasion, due to the few rehearsals alloted with it. One wishes that if the time is taken to polish a choir simil- ar time be given to creating more precision and subtlety in the instrumental portion. But the weak points here were minor, and the performance went smoothly for the most part. Also on the program were two songs by Brahms, Op. 112, rare- ly, if ever, performed. This is unjust, for like the rest of Brahms' late works, this music is characterized by beauty of melodic line and intense emo- tional feeling. Although it was a pleasure to hear them in any condition, one would have ap- preciated more careful attention to dynamics and tone here, for the writing is of a delicate na- ture that demands this. Judging by the large aud- ience, the Arts Chorale has a solid reputation on campus (or maybe its' Mozart). Whatever the case, the combination was a winning one, and one anticipates more fine work by the group and its director in the future. SPECIAL SHOWING MONDAY NITE ONLY DON QUIXOTE dir. Grigory Kozintsev (1959) Russian version of classic story. "Stunning film in which the ro- bust characters of Cervantes come to life on a vast screen full of dramatic detail." - CINEMA II "A View From the Bridge" 1961 with Carol Lawrence, Raf Vallone, Maureen Stapleton, Jean Sorel directed by SIDNEY LUMET Film version of Arthur Miller's play SUNDAY, MARCH 28 7:00, 9:00 p.m. Aud. A, Angell Hall 75c -NEXT WEEK- MARLON BRANDO'S "'ONE-EYED JACKS" Il ci n a Gu ' ii SATURDAY-SUNDAY-MARCH 27, 28 TWO OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER dir. JEAN-LUC GODARD (1966) Directed by one of the greatest New Wave film- makers-GODARD, and filmed by the king of the cameramen-Raoul COUTARD. It's 24 hours in the life of a wife prostitute. -During intermission, a tape made dur- ing Godard's 1970 trip will be played. - 1111H By RICHARD LEHFELDT I was unable to find any Pearls Before Swine records be- fore tonight's concert, and may- be (in terms of the dramatic sur- prise effect) it was just as well. The clientele on line in front of Canterbury House was every bit as ignorant as 'I was; the most I could get out of any of them was that the band's music was "mellow" and its lyrics "enig- matic." The leader of the group himself, compounding the con- fusion, noted that If you love Canned Heat, you'll love Pearls Before Swine." None of which told me (or tells you) very much about this group. Boggled at first by the idea of a mellow, enigmatic Canned Heat, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Pearls Before Swine is noth- ing of the sort. Their music (two acoustic guitars, a Fender bass and an unamplified piano) is quiet, gentle and folky, with the pianist's country-style riffs often making the group sound some- what like The Band. Most of the songs played during the two generous sets the group offered were original, the rest being a very enjoyable selection of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen songs. Of the latter, especially beautiful was the rendition of Cohen's classic "Suzanne," ac- companied only by acoustic gui- tar. As an extra-added attraction, the group did a stirring cccktail music style rendition 'of Merle Haggard's equally classic "Okie from Muskogee," complete with shoo wop wa doo's. I thoroughly enjoyed most of the original material, whose sub- ject matter ranged from drugs to mock-protest to anti-war to science fiction to suicide to nos- talgia to drugs, etc. All of the songs were executed flawlessly but not with the sort of mechai- cal dispassion which character- izes many groups currently into a more structured, harmonic sound. The musicians were (or seemed) very relaxed, apparent- ly really enjoying every minute of their performance. The re- partee was humorous aad uncon- trived, and the audience did not lose interest at any point. In short, I had an extremely enjoyable night listening to this group. Also (to repeat what has been said countless times before about Canterbury House), ths is an ideal place for a relaxed, amiable concert. (I have to men- tion a neurotic passion I have for the place's extraordinary ap- ple cider.) Pearls Before Swine will be appearing tonight and Monday night, and I strongly urge you to get over there and see them if you possibly can. They are a most welcome rest period from the likes of Canned Heat. Slavomir Mrozek's Out at Sea will be presented as a puppet- play, with tape and slides, in the Residential College. The Sunday and Monday night performances at 7 and 9 p.m. will be per- formed in the Halfway Inn. The play is directed by Betsy Fifer with a cast of Susan Darvas, Dan Rasmussen, Keith Clark, Dena Mussaf, and David Fris- inger. 7 & 9:05 662-8871 75c ARCH ITECTURE AUDITORIUM I I -- ___________________________________ 7 & 9:05 662-8871 ARCH. AUD. ROURT I(KHA(L J. R4DFORD POLLARD LITTL4 FAUSS MD BIG HALSY d 3rd WEEK I' i "A ROARING VISUAL DELIGHT!" -L.A. TIMES "A M UST" -PLAYBOY OPEN 12:45 SHOWS AT 1:15-3-5-7-9 p.m. Corner of State and Liberty Sts. DIAL 662-6264 Starts Thursday, April 1st Dustin Hoffman as "LITTLE BIG MAN" ' HV4~~ ~~~.b. . . . . ,... t: ,". ,5, ... ... .........':.....?"......... . : hx~.... . . . ... . .:. 2..r ...d +" f TONIGHT! * attle of Algiers 331 THOMPSON (between William and Liberty) Donation $1 7&9:30 p.m. Academy Award-Best Foreign Film (1966){ A Newsreel-Magic House Benefit TI DOORS OPEN 12:45 SHOWS AT 1,3, 5,7, 9P.M. NEXT: "GOING -Wanda Hale. New York OadY News DOWN THE ROAD" Sponsored by Creative Arts Festival NOMINATED FOR ACADEMY AWARDS BEST PICTURE BEST DIRECTOR BEST ACTRESS BEST ACTOR BAST SUPPORTING ACTOR BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAI F RBEST ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCO MMEMMj s GP Y RE Y 45 7, 9 ded APRIL 2-3 7 and 9 p.m. atural Science Auditorium $1.50 AT DOOR 4+. AAFC March 30 75c Ali Macfraw'Ryan 'Neal A HOWARD 6 MINSO-ARTHUR HILlERProduction: John Marley & Ray Milland 7th (E-p WEEK! 603 E. Liberty DIAL 5-6290 Doors Open 12: Shows at 1, 3, 5, Free List Suspen A James Bond Farce! Casino Royale WITH- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, Charles Boyer & David Niven Lmm;M-lo Subscribe To THE MICHIGAN DAILY Phone 764-0558 Aud. A-Angell Hall 7:00-9:30 _.____.___.. J ____. ii March 31-April 3 Trueblood Theater Noel Coward's 8:00 P.M. university of Michigan Film Socie presents Marcel Carne's Les enfants du pai .ty (ARM) radis Drunk drivers bring families together. (Children of Paradise) written by JACQUES PREVERT with Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoir FRIDAY-SATURDAY-SUNDAY March 26, 27, 28 W In hospital rooms and at funerals. Because that's where the drunk driver's victims wind up. Drunk drivers are involved in at least 25,000 deaths and 800,000 crashes every year. And what can you do? Remember, the drunk driver, the abusive drinker, the problem drinker may be sick and need your help. 1I