ARTS The Michigan Daily Wednesday, February 9, 1983 Page 5 I - Earthy baritone shuns image By George Shepherd SWEDISH BARITONE Hakan Hagegard is familiar to many only as the cute, bumbling Papageno in Ingmar Bergman's film The Magic Flute. In recent years, however, Hagegard has had an increasingly packed schedule of lieder- recitals, or- chestra concerts, and opera perfor- mances. Hagegard's song concert this evening at 8:30 p.m. in Hill Auditorium is part of a 19-concert U.S. tour which will end in Carnegie Hall in New York. Hagegard's boyish appearance, cheery charm, and casual everyday dress-which make him the heartthrob of many youthful altos and sopranos-conflict with the common perception of a classical singer. When asked in a recent telephone interview if he abstains from certain food, speaking, or travelling on performance days, he replied, "No, I'm not that kind of singer." Yet Hagegard's refreshingly earthy manner conceals a hard-working dedication to his craft. "To succeed," he said, "a singer must put 24 hours a day into the job. Luck is not important to have a career. It's absolutely hard work." Born in Karlstadt in 1945, Hagegard studied at the Karlstadt Conservatory and at the Stockholm Royal Music Academy. At age 23, he made his debut with the Stockholm Opera as Pagegeno, the same role that gave him his big break in the 1975 film. Hagegard, like many Scandinavians, worked hard to learn foreign languages. In addition to his native Swedish, he speaks five other tongues. He noted that it is often hard for American singers because they don't-learn foreign languages as children. The unmarried Hagegard's schedule forces him to be away from Sweden for long periods of time. In addition to this two month American tour, he will sing opera in France during April and May, in Australia in August and September, and in Argentina in October. "If you don't like to travel, forget it," he said. Mr. Hagegard denies that lieder con- certs are infrequent because they are in foreign languages and are boring: "I don't see lieder as a dying art form. I think it will become more and more popular." He admitted that lieder con- certs challenge the audience, however. "I ask the audience to be prepared for my concerts, not only myself. We shouldn't live in a society where the audience says 'feed me.' " After the huge success of The Magic Flute film, Hagegard was swamped with offers from opera houses wanting him to recreate his Papageno. He refused, fearing a typecast in this role that would limit other opportunities. In fact, he has not played the part since the Bergman film. Hagegard's lyriic baritone, similar to that of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, is of- ten too high for operatic baritone roles and too low for tenor rolls. Fischer- Dieskau claims that, while young, he strove and strained to become a tenor. Hagegard thinks this idea is silly, "I'm very happy as a lyric baritone, thank you." Hagegard says that the opera house requires a different approach from the lieder stage. "Opera and lieder use totally different kinds of singing. I use a different voice in each; stronger for opera, more lyric for lieder." Hagegard abhors the idea that lieder and opera are musical museums for relics of the past. "My approach to singing and music is very much from the life around me." Hagegard's partner tonight will be pianist Thomas Schuback who is also a conductor at the Stockholm Opera. The two have worked together for 10 years and have both studied with lieder coaches Gerald Moore and Eric Werba Tickets will be $6 to $16. Call the University Musical Society at 665-3717 for details. ,ANN ARBOR 2 INDIVIDUAL ThEATRES Sib A a ,t.0700 $1 75 W E D NESD AY S HOW S bef ore6 p.m. FROM DAVID CRONENBERG, CREATOR OF "SCANNERS" JAMES DEBORAH WOOD HARRY VIDEODROME Daily Photo by ELIZABETH SCOTT It's too bright for this Sun Messenger, so he puts on his shades at the WCBN bash Sunday night. "CBN bash f11s the airwaves By Joe Hoppe W CBN (88.3 on your dial) raised $600 over the $12,000 they were shooting for in this year's on-the-air fundraiser. Hooray! The very successful fourth annual fundraiser culminated Sunday night with the CBN Bash in the Union Ballroom. Everyone that contributed $4 .or more received a ticket. Many people made their contributions at the door just so they could get into the bash. The bash in the ballroom was a big- time production. The bands weren't playing as usual on a simple riser op- posite the door; instead they played on a huge temporary stage to the right. P-eal rock 'n' roll colored lights hung from scaffolds up near the ceiling. They'd flash and turn colors just like for ACDC. It was some set-up. The bands that performed had musical styles as diverse as those played on 'CBN. That was on purpose. It was supposed to be a sampler. It was a tremendous success-there was- rockabilly, country, new wave, rock 'n' roll, salsa, swing, blues, and beatific steel drum music. It was a happy evening. WCBN was happy because it got a lot of money. The people were happy because they got to see good music being played, they got to dance, and they didn't have to study. The musicians were happy because they were donating their time to a worthy cause and they were doing what they like to do best. It's good to see happy musicians doing what they like. No one looked bored. And they were en- thusiastic, too. George Bedard and the Bonnevilles started things out with rockabilly and country. George plays lead and sings and the Bonnevilles are a rhythm guitar, bass, drums, and crying coun- try-and-western steel guitar. The Bon- nevilles weren't playing much of the big rockabilly hits that you hear all over. Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues' was the only big hit they played and George did it with just the right yodel. The band really excelled in its ren- ditions of George Jones cry-in-your- beer country tunes-it had to be the steel guitar. Bedard and the Bon- nevilles seemed fond of show tunes, coming across with a haunting "Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" theme from Clint Eastwood's spaghetti western and a "Hawaii Five-O" rocker that would have done any late '60s wedding band proud. Their high spot was a medley called "The World's Cheapest Dance Tune" by Bedard. They rocked through "Wooly Bully" into "Windy" into "Wipe-Out" into "Tears of a Clown" and back to "Wooly Bully" as everybody bopped. Nonfiction played the most energetic set of the night. The only breaks bet- ween songs were when drummer Bill Frank pounded out a new tempo. The three piece band was tight-they should be; the guitarist and bassist are the brothers: Ben and Larry Miller. Their brotherhood helped out in the close vocals too, especially one intro for "Walkie Talkie" which had them speaking simultaneously for a couple minutes-harmonic and confusing. Nonfiction plays all originals. They're poppy, a little new wavish, but mainly just fast rock 'n' roll. The pop isn't wimpy, either. Nonfiction doesn't compromise, and the hooks are strong. "In fatu fatu fatu ation" still sticks in my head. The Sun Messengers are from Detroit. The Sun Messengers played trumpets, trombones, saxophones, an upright bass, a guitar, drums and at times, a harmonica. They started out with some big band swing and everybody that knew how to, jitter- bugged. The band was having fun. They got really upbeat and did some pseudo-funky, almost rap stuff. They put or ,3-D glasses, squirmed around, and the guy that was singing took out a harmonica. It squeekedand squawed and then the band danced. The har- monica howled and sirened and the band sang "We're gonna have a good time tonight" in response. The Sun Messengers closed with some different- than-the-previous-band but entirely gratuitous salsa-type stuff. Had a good time tonight. The World Famous Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band is from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and eight of its nine members were present. One was a very young girl. The "steel" in the title is referring to the great gleaming oil drums on which they play. The oil barrels were covered with gold prisma stripe, pain- ted metallic red and green, and done up in pearl lacquer. Didn't look much like old oil drums. The heads of the drum are sectioned off like a turtle's back; each section is a different note. The in- struments were developed from the hundreds of empty oil drums left lying around Trinidad/Tobago after it stop- ped being a military port during WWII. See what the ingenious islanders do with American garbage! The oil barrels sound like marimbas, or syn- thesizers, or hammond organs, or millions of ecstatically chirping crickets. "Where is the noise coming from?" One thinks when the band begins. Certainly not from the regular drum set or the bass they've got up there. The WFTTSB used to play at malls. I once saw them do a truly interesting rendition of "Sabre Dance." They must have felt that they could be themselves at the Union. The band played calypso and down home reggae. A pretty woman sang. Thousands of gas drum metal crickets chirped harmoniously. The people were dancing. Everybody had fun. -f -AIX Irena, Olga, Masha ... Courage to Dream Russia, 1900 THREE SISTERS by Anton Chekhov Directed by Mary Kelly February 9-12 8 pm February 13 2 pm Power Center f icke s on sale at the Professional Theatre Progran Ticket Office For infornalion cal/ 764-0450 WED-12:45, 2:35, 4:25,6:15, 8:05, 9:45 (R) THURS - 6:15, 8:05, 9:45 GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER BEST ACTRESS -N A DRAMA MERYL KEVIN i I. The R. C. Players present MAMAS, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE PLAYWRIGHTS AN ACTOR'S EVENING OF SAM SHEPARD FEBRUARY 10-12, 8:00 EAST QUAD AUD ALL TICKETS $1.00 # ..