TheMichgan Daily--Thursday, October 13, 1977-
ARCADE
... a weekly roundup
Opening night
NEW YORK - The Metropolitan
Opera opened its 1977 season Monday
night with a 6-foot-7 basso towering
as Czar Boris Godunov, an American
mezzo-soprano making her debut and
the wife of Vice President Walter
Mondale in the audience.
The performance of Boris Godunov
as a whole was more ponderous than
it should have been. Intellectually,
one could appreciate it, but the
excitement which should are from
singers to audience and back again
did not happen at this Met opening.
Mrs. Mondale was the guest of Met
executive director Anthony Bliss for
the opera and a dinner attended by 50
board members, patrons and hon-
some old time Hollywood hoopla.
Vintage stars paraded down Sunset
Boulevard in 1920 automobiles. The
original cast of The Jazz Singer got
together at Stage 6 of KTLA, where
Warner Brothers premiered the film.
Fifty years ago Al Jolson sang the
first synchronized words ever heard
in a feature film.
May McAvoy, in the cast of The Jaz
Singer, recalled what it was like to
pioneer sound: "It was all done on
records, enormous platters of wax.
The cameras were so noisy so the
studio had to build soundproof glass
booths. The biggest problem was
where to put the microphones. They
were placed in flower pots and under
pillows and the actors had to stay
close to them so the dialogue could be
Goodbye, Dolly
NASHVILLE, Tenn.,- Blind sing-
er Ronnie Milsap cut loose with a yell
Monday as he stepped up to claim his
title as country music's entertainer
of the year in addition to honors for
top male vocalist and the industry's
best album.
Fellow performers glittering with
jewels and sequined outfits echoed
his joy, jumping to their feet to
applaud the singer's sweep of the
Country Music Association awards
ceremony.
Milsap, who was born blind but
mastered violin, piano and guitar by
the time he was 12, won the male
vocalist award in 1974 and 1976.
Crystal Gayle, her hip-length hair
swinging like sleek curtains around
her face, said it was the sultry ballad,
Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,
which won her best female vocalist
honors over her sister, Loretta Lynn,
and ,other well-established stars.
Dolly Parton, favored to win best
entertainer or top female vocalist,
left the ceremony empty-handed.
Waylon Jennings, also considered a
front-runner but who won nothing
this year, boycotted the awards
saying they foster unnecessary rival-
ry.
The vocal duo of the year award
went to Jim Ed Brown and Helen
Cornelius while the Statler Brothers
were picked best vocal group for the
sixth year in a row.
Roy Clark, whose banjo and guitar
picking highlights the homegrown
humor of HeeHaw was chosen instru-
mentalist of the year. The Original
Texas Playboys, assembled by the
late Bob Wills who was known as the
king of western swing, claimed the
title of the year's best instrumental
group.
Some way to spend a holi-
day! MY holiday! And
where would you be if I'd
never left Portugal?
WASHINGTON - Nineteen years
after its removal from the East Front
of the Capitol, the government still
hasn't decided what to do with a
controversial statue of Christopher
Columbus.
The Discovery by Luigi Persico,
stood outside the East Front for 114
years before it was placed in
"temporary" storage during a Cap-
itol renovation.
The marble work protrays Colum-
bus holding a symbolic globe, like a
basketball referee ready to throw up
the first ball. A scantily clad Indian
maiden is at his feet.
The statue became controversial
when it was unveiled in 1844. Art
critics have panned it and Indians
Pii -size performance-AF
MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- o-year-old Dana Putnam (right) looked to an
older boy for pointers while participating in a young people's arts program
at Alvermo College here. Pre-school through high school violinists took part.
-AP Photo
The Metropolitan Opera opened Monday night with the Mussorgsky opera
Boris Godunov. Bigwigs from the worlds of politics and society attended.
ored guests . in the Met's grand
tier-level restaurant.
Florence Quivar, a native of Phila-
delphia, made her debut as Marina,
the leading female role in the opera.
Her voice is large, with controlled
tremolo and a mature "grand lady"
quality. But, perhaps because of
debut nerves, she did not always
have enough breath to support her
tones, which also were often unap-
pealingly husky. One though of her
voice as more suited to a villainous
role.
Baritone Vern Shinall, of St. Louis,
also made his debut in the smaller
role of a Jesuit and had an appropri-
ate edge of decisiveness in his voice.
Kazimierz Kord of Poland con-
ducted, and the first act especially
sounded too slow. Since 1975, the Met
has used the lean score of Boris that
Modes Mussorgsky wrote and or-
chestrated, and not the lush orches-
tration and partial rewriting that
Rimsky-Korsakov did later.
Not the King James
CQRDOBA, Mex. - The first Bible
ever written in the Mexican Indian
vernacular is about to be published
by ,the Franciscan mission in Chi-
apas, the state bordering Guatemala
that once was a major center of
Mayan civilization. The Bible will be
written in Mayan and called Chujul-
bajun-
According to Franciscan Friar
Facundo Ramirez, only 20 per cent of
the 120,000 Indians who live in the
region can read and write. He
believes the biblical doctrines can
more easily be transmitted in the
native tongue because of the educa-
tional level of the population.
"
Talkies Toasted
HOLLYWOOD - Fifty years ago
the talkies were born with Al Jolson's
famous The Jazz Singer. This week in
Hollywood, the first sound studio, the
birthplace of the talkies was named
cultural Landmark No. 187 by the Los
Angeles Cultural Heritage Board.
Postmaster General Benjamin
Bailar issued a commemorative
stamp in honor of talking pictures.
He remarked that the film world has
had five other stamps - for Will
Rogers, George Eastman, Walt Dis-
ney, D. W. Griffith and the silent pic-
ture anniversary in 1944.
.The half-century of talking movies
seemed like a good reason to revive
MOTD (D 0117 , TI IEATLI
heard. We were all anxious to make a
good picture, but frankly, I didn't
think talkies would last."
Taking nips of 'Gin,
NEW YORK - The Gin Game is a
small, funny play with a sharp finale
wallop. Two ranking Broadway per-
formers, Hume Cronyn and his wife
Jessica Tandy, are the whole cast of
the seemingly innocuous trifle that
premiered Thursday night at the'
Golden Theater.
The production originated at the
Long Wharf company in New Haven,
Conn., which is becoming a regular
contributor to Main Stem well-being,
though the script has also been tested
by several other regional companies.
It was written by D.L. Coburn, a
native of Baltimore now resident in
Dallas, and is reportedly his first
excursion into dramaturgy. Besides
having a keen ear fpr dialogue,
Coburn shows rewarding compassion
and understanding for the way in
which the minor irritations of every-
day life can become time bombs that
destroy a person.
William Glover, AP drama critic,
feels that "Nichols and his stellar
players keep The Gin Game lightly
diverting, and make the comments
about geriatric life more amusing
than they really are. Cronyn is a
fidgety marvel, Miss Tandy a wonder
of grandmotherly aplomb. The Gin
Game is a miniature drama, present-
ed with superbly professional artis-
try."
TONIGHT: 8 p.m.
-Power Center
protested the girl's semi-nudity.
Defenders said the head of Columbus
was taken from an original bust in
Spain and could be the best likeness
of the explorer in Washington.
Today, it rests at the Smithsonian
Institution's storage facility in Suit-
land, Md. A Smithsonian spokesman,
Paul Perrot, said, "There are no
present plans for The Discovery." He
said it might be placed in a museum
exhibit in the future.
The better-than-
prime-time players?
KIRBY, England - Five witches
whose backyard fire dance disturbed
neighbors watching a midnight hor-
ror film on television have been put
on probation by local magistrates.
''I was watching Night of the
Zombie on television when I heard
them shouting," said Robert Eaton.
"They looked as though they were in
a trance. It was worse than seeing
the horror film."
Other residents of the quiet neigh-
borhood testified Monday that the
three men and two women were
chanting and dancing around a
firepin in the shape of a cross burning
in themiddle of a circular pit in the
back yard of the house in which the
witches were living together. The
women and two of the men wore
black robes bearing signs of the
zodiac, the witnesses said.
"They kept throwing something
into the fire that seemed to cause an
explosion," said George Taylor, 39.
"Then they would jump through the
smoke . . . I must admit I thought
they must be unusual people whe
saw one of them sunbathing naked
the garden."
Recent Deaths
-Voltaire Perkins, the attorn
actor who presided over hundred
"divorces" on the daytime televis
series Divorce Court, died of
apparent heart attack Monday in
Angeles. Perkins, a 1921 graduat
the USC law school, maintaine
private legal practice in Los AngE
for 45 years.
-DeWitt Jordan, Jr., 44-year-
muralist and portrait painter, r
shot and killed Sunday in Memp
Jordan, who was marrivd, v
visiting his girlfriend and was sho
her brother. The artist, born
Nashville, rose to fame with
painting called Birth of the Blu
Arts Arcade was compiled thro
the wires of AP, UPI, and by
staffers Marcelle Federici, Wi
Goodman, Jeff Selbst, Renee S
cusky, and Tim Yagle.
IF YOUR
STYLE WORKS
STAY WITH IT
U.M. Stylists
at the UNION
-AP Photo
Flagstone field day?
HARTFORD, Conn. - Officials here are dismayed with sculptor Carl An-
dre's work entitled Stone Field Sculpture, located in a business section of
downtown Hartford. Andre was paid $87,000 for the work by the Hartford In-
stitute for Public Giving and the National Endowment for the Arts.
NOON LUNCHEON
Homemade Soup and Sandwich 50C
Friday, October 14
MAUREEN O'ROURKE
Women's Program Coordinator, U of M:
"SOME OF THE WOMEN'S
CONCERNS ON CAMPUS
GUILD HOUSE
802 MONROE (Corner of Oakland)
POETRY READING
WITH
JOHN REINHARD and JOHN ALCOCK
reading from their works
Thursday, October 13-7:30 P.M.
AT THE
GUILD HOUSE
802 MONROE (Corner of Oakland)
Due to theme of this production,
PARENTAL GUIDANCE is Advised.
The Universityof Michigan
Professional Theatre Program
a . Guest Artist Series 1977-78
For info, colI: (313) 764-0450 before 5 p.m.
(313) 763-3333, 6-8 p.m.
coming
first University Showcase
THE FIRST BREEZE OF SUMMER
Oct.26.29 in Trueblood Theotre
** ** * *** * *** **** *
CUCAN DDIL1T7 UWL
° .
S
. -P"
In Her 1927 ieo
lMY Iit ij7
OFFICE OF CAMPUS LIFE
*r
IN CONCERT
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21--8 P.M.
EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
BOWEN FIELD HOUSE
TICKETS $8.50 - $7.50--Available at the'McKinney Union, Aura Sound,
Bonzo Dog Records, Weorhouse Records, Hudsons.
A BAMBOO Production
BOB BAGERY'S presents
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