Page 8 --The Michigan Dily-- Wednesday, January 14, 1987
I
Records
The Durutti Column
Valuable Passages
Relativity
Vini Reilly is a shy, quiet
young composer/multi-
instrumentalist from England and
The Durutti Column is the
ensemble with which he has
performed and recorded his
compositions for about seven years.
Valuable Passages is an anthology
of the Durutti Column, a double set
which traces their history. It is an
album of unusual diversity,
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reflecting the group's penchant for
exploring different musical forms.
The opening track, "Sketch for
Summer," highlights Reilly's
exceptional guitar playing, which is
capable of producing fully
orchestrated parts and creating
beautiful atmospheres. Reilly's
playing is crystal clear, ringing and
echoing like distant bells. He uses
his technically complex work to
create simple music with generally
minimalist arrangements.
"The Missing Boy" has Reilly
and percussionist Bruce Mitchell
playing a lively, danceable groove
that maintains a melancholic
atmosphere. This track also features
Reilly's singing; quiet, understated,
and effective, Reilly's voice lies
somewhere between a whisper and a
mutter, perfectly complementing
the delicate textures of his music.
"The Room" evokes a strange
sense of nostalgia and isolation,
with haunting synthesizers and a
beautiful saxophone melody
creating a film-n oir aura. The
group pursues a more jazz oriented
direction on "Blind Elevator Girl,"
with swinging rhythms and blaring
trumpet solos. The Durutti
Column's ability to move freely
from one musical form to another
is most evident here. All of the
compositions on Valuable Passages
are marked by Vini Reilly's
distinctive melodic style and the
extraordinary way he plays guitar
and keyboards. As a guitarist,
Reilly is especially fascinating; his
style is very much his own and his
playing is as impressive as that of
virtuosos like Bill Nelson and
Robert Fripp.
Still, perhaps the most
fascinating aspect of the Durutti
Column is their ability to create
musical environments. Their music
is filled with a deep emotional
intensity that reveals itself more
and more with each listening. With
the Durutti Column, Vini Reilly
has created a kind of other-world,
one which deserves to be listened
to.
-Matthew Smith
F
-'I1
What's the difference?
A band of course. Appearing tonight at Rick's, from left, are Ramsey Gouda, Randy Martin, Marty
Meyer, Tom Campbell, and Tina Marchccio.
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Books
Divo
By Helena Mathepoulos
Harper & Row
$25.00 hardcover
The popularity of opera today is
a phenomenon. Not since the days
of Verdi, when it came into being,
has opera enjoyed such success.
Why is the contemporary public
interest on such a grand scale?.
Factors such as nostalgia, modern
marketing techniques and the efforts
of opera stars to bring it to a larger
public through stadium perfor-
mances are all reasons for opera's
resurgence. In Divo, Matheopoulos
talks with conductors and the great
tenors, baritones and basses to
discuss opera today.
Matheopoulos offers sufficient
analysis of opera in her
:
introduction. Without embellish -
ment she reasons why critics have
noted a vocal decline in recent years
and cites both musical and eco -
nomic factors: too much traveling,
too little time in vocal training,
lack of good teachers and con -
ductors, and exploiting talents bey -
ond their capacities by asking them
to sing the wrong roles or at the
wrong time.
One not only appreciates Math -
eopoulos's succinct judgment but
also her consideration for opera
novices. A glossary defines most.
foreign terms used in the text and
explanations of the significance of
particular octaves and ranges to the
voices. Within the text itself, she
also offers notes to point out
opposing viewpoints, and indicates
the chapters to compare. All these
aids are helpful and make some
technical aspects of opera more
palatable.
Matheopoulos's technique of
allowing the peers, as well as the
principals, to speak is ideal in
offering a well-rounded body of
information. She presents infor -
mation that one might not have
considered, through quotes that are
enlightening of opera itself. For
4
. Y
t i
example, one of the greatest bar
itones, Sherrill Milnes says: "If'
someone were to claim Rigoletto
is easy for him then you can be,
sure there's something wrong with
his performance. Because this role
is full of traps: the biggest trap is,
of course, the posture you have to
adopt while singing it, i.e.., the
fact that you have to do a certain
amount of bending over in order to
give the impression of hunchback,
and this twisted posture...inhibits
breath support."
Considering the eclectic subject
matter, the style of the book is
extremely comfortable. It flows
very quickly and smoothly. Math -
eopoulos is also delicate in speak -
ing of scandalous matters like Gia -
como Aragall's breakdown: "This
period of intense activity and
international success was followed
by a brief lull in the late seventies
caused by nervous exhaustion, from
which he nevertheless re-emerged,
in top form, with a voice still as
fresh yet richer and more substantial
than in his early years."
Other sytlistic plusses include'
Matheopoulos's appropriately injec -
ted humor. For example, after Pav -
arotti has explained the importance
of a correctly developed diaphragm
in taking strain from the vocal
cords, Matheopoulos reasons: "This
is the reason why babies can cry all
night without any signs of fatigue:
if they relied on their throats, they
would stoop much sooner!"
Overall, Divo is a marvelous
book. The subject and artists are
superbly presented in a very
readable style. The book continues
to fascinate the reader throughout
and by no means does it alienate an
opera novice. Bravo Helena
Matheopoulos!
THIS SPACE CONTRIBUTED BY THE PUBLISHER
-Gloria Sanak
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