8- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 27, 1996
UE# C
The Beatles
Anthology 2
Apple / Capitol
The Beatles are probably the only
rock'n'rolI band in the world that could
release six discs of their trash, and still
have it be more wonderful than the
majority of other rock music on the
market.
"Anthology 2," the Beatles' second
two-disc installment of their demos,
live tracks, alternate takes and new
material covers the band's most pro-
lific years. The collection contains
music from February 1965 to February
1968, encompassing the albums "Help!"
"Rubber Soul," "Revolver," "Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
and "Magical Mystery Tour."
While the concept of "Anthology 2" is
the same as "Anthology 1," which was
released November 1995, the second re-
lease is far superior in sound quality and
musical quality to its predecessor.
Along with the old material comes
another new Beatles single, "Real
Love," which is more interesting and
closer to classic Beatles style than "Free
As A Bird" from "Anthology 1." Re-
corded by John Lennon in 1979, the
track originally only included piano
and vocals. Paul McCartney, George
Harrison and Ringo Starr hired pro-
ducer George Lynne to add their vocals
and instruments to the track, and in
early 1995 they recorded the new ver-
sion. While the song is pretty good, it is
still nowhere near the caliber of the
band's original classic material.
Aside from "Real Love," "Anthol-
ogy 2" contains three previously
unreleased, yet worthwhile tracks -
"If You've Got Trouble," "That Means
A Lot" and "12-Bar Original."
With three alternate takes of "Straw-
berry Fields Forever" and a slew of other
top Beatles hits, "Anthology 2" makes a
great addition to the collections ofanyone
from Beatles fanatics to people simply
interested in learning more about the phe-
nomenon surrounding the greatest
Two actors rehearse their roles in Opera Theater's double-bill of Italian comic operas.
Clasic cominc operas bgim
Opera Theater's amusing productions begin tomorrow
rock'n'roll band of all-time.
Many of the tracks on the discs are
fairly similar to their loved versions,
but others are stripped down to their
bare bones to reveal more raw and
equally enchanting versions. "Lucy In
the Sky With Diamonds" without most
of the psychedelic background tracks is
amazingly natural-sounding and enjoy-
able, as is "I Am The Walrus."
Others like the great wacky ska tune
"You Know My Name (Look Up The
Number)," a B-side to "Let It Be,"
appears with material cut out when it
was originally released.
A fun outtake of "You've Got to
Hide Your Love Away" with the sound
of glass breaking and Lennon's banter
of "Paul's broken a glass, broken a
glass, Paul's broken a glass" is a great
addition to the track.
"Anthology 2" is a great teaching
tool to learn more about the Beatles'
illustrious history, and also for people
to hear the amazing progressions the
band made in the studio with the help of
producer George Martin.
With its total 45 tracks, "Anthology 2"
is a beautiful collection. All the tracks
sound marvelous and add new life to the
classic material, making the songs, new
and old, more exciting than ever before.
- Brian A. Gnatt
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Bad Hair Day
Scotti Bros.
"Weird Al"Yankovic is cool. Enough
said.
He writes the most creative parodies
in music. "Like a Surgeon," "Eat It,"
"Fat" and "Smells Like Nirvana" are
ingenious. Some of the new material on
his latest album, "Bad Hair Day," even
competes with his classic material.
Weird Al has a problem though. While
famous forhis parodies, his original songs,
which make up about 50 percent of his
albums, are usually plain stupid and un-
funny. More bizarre is that all of his
originals are still caught in the early to
mid='80s cheese style of music. His syn-
thesizers and retarded lyrics push the
limits of a listener's sanity and he looks
exactly the same as he did 15 years ago.
But hey, you still gotta love him.
The lead track on "Bad Hair Day,'
"Amish Paradise," a spoof of Coolio's
"Gangsta's Paradise," is an instant Al
classic. He sings: "As I walk through
the valley where I harvest my grain /
take a look at my wife and realize sh
very plain/ But that's just perfect for an
Amish like me / You know I shun fancy
things like electricity."
By Emily Lambert
Daily Arts Writer
"High art it ain't," Joshua Major joked. Major is a School
of Music lecturer and the director of this weekend's double-
bill from the Opera Theater.
Two comic one-act operas, "Gianni Schicehi" by Giacomo
Puccini and "I Campanello" by Gaetano Donizetti, will be
performed at the Mendelssohn Theater by voice students.
Pier Calabria will
GINANNI
SCHICCHI/IL dP
CAMPANELLO
Where: Lydia Mendelssohn
Theater
When: Thursday through
Saturday at 8 p.m. Sunday at
2 p.m.
Tickets are $12-16, $6 student
admission. Call 764-0450 for
more information.
lead the Univer-
sity Philharmonia
Orchestra. The
two operas will be
sung in Italian and
there will be En-
glish supertitles.
Major doesn't
like using labels
to identify works,
but he said that
this weekend's
simple and charming," Major said. "There's nothing high-
brow about it."
The full title of "Il Campanello" - "I1 campanello di
notte"- is translated "The Night Bell," and refers to an old
Italian law that requires a pharmacist to answer his bell at any
hour of the night. In the opera, the elderly Don Annibale
Pistacchio has married young Serafina. Enrico, Serafina's
jilted beau, has vowed to ruin the couple's wedding night.
Enrico rings the bell, bitter and in various disguises.
Puccini wrote 12 operas, including "La Boheme," "Tosca"
and "Madama Butterfly." His only comedy, "Gianni
Schicchi," fills out this bill.
" Schicchi' is a different beast in that it's a much more
developed, mature work from a very mature composer,"
Major said.
In "Gianni Schicchi," the wealthy and repentant Buoso
Donati has died and willed all ofhis money to the church. His
relatives, feigning grief, are mortified to learn of the depar-
ture of what they consider the family fortune.
The rash relatives turn to the cunning peasant Gianni
Schicchi for help. Schicchi explains that Buoso's death
should be kept a secret until a dying Buoso - an impostor-
can leave a final will with the notary.
But in comedy, nothing's that easy. "Both operas have
been conceived very specifically," said Major, applauding
the stage designs and sets.
"They're very fun and very funny. It's amusing how we've
done it," Major said, adding, "but I don't want to give it
away."
e t entertainment
promises to be
good, "lowbrow" fun. "It's charming. It's a diversion. It's
light," he said. "It's a distraction from life, as good operas
and movies and plays are supposed to be."
Donizetti's "Il Campanello," written in one week in 1836,
is what Major called a "comedy of exaggeration."
"It's a typical example of early Donizetti comedy. It's
Weird Al does the humpty hump.
One fun parody on the album, "The
Alternative Polka," is one of Al's famous
polkamedleys featuring the likesofBeck,
Alanis, Nine Inch Nails, SmashingPump-
kins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters
andothers. Another fun parodyis"Gump,"
a take-offofthe Presidents ofthe U.S.A.'s
"Lump."
The rest of the album is a bit slow,
however, and turns out to be somewhat
of a dud. Unfortunately, with'Al's e -
treme highs, you have his extreme1o
No matter though. He's still cool.
- Brian A. Gnatt
Cosmicity
The Moment
TBL Music
Liam Gallagher, lead singer and son&
time music critic, would probably th
of Cosmicity's "The Moment" like this:
"Non-imaginative bollocks keyboard
crap," like he did when alluding to the
DJ's-turned-samplers the Chemical
Brothers. While "Our Kid" may be a bit
harsh and generalizing with his belief, it
more or less sums up "The Moment."
One the plus side, Cosmicity, essen-
tially Mark Nicholas singing and pro-
gramming various instruments, is arather
happy group, with clearvocalsand hapq
songs. Furthermore, songs like "Into It
and the title track are quite easy to dance
to and are good fodder for strobe-lit Top
44 clubs, if that is your prerogative.
Now the bad news: The majority of
"The Moment" is really poor. The album
is littered with cheese, like "Keep Me In
Mind" and "W.T.M.1.8.4.," which al-
ludes to 184-beats-per-minute. If you are
afan of"oontz-oontz," bass-drivensons
with a female attempting to hit really hi
notes in the background, why not just
purchase the best of 2 Unlimited?
Nevertheless, even though the major-
ity of this album sounds like just about
everything you've unwittingly engulfed
at various parties, if you are a fan of this
MTV Dance Mix-esque genre, you will
probably find something you'd like about
"The Moment." Morepowertoyouifyou
do.
-Aaron Renn
See RECORDS, Page
Have you cast your vote yet?
STEVE MARTIN
A"
Surprise, surprise ... John's alive!
Reputation eludes Network's 'Maids'
By Kristin Cleary
For the Daily
Performance Network is well-known
throughout the area for being a very
innovative and creative theater. How-
ever, this description does not prove
very accurate for their current produc-
tion of Jean Genet's "The Maids." Al-
though I have greatly enjoyed past Per-
formance Network productions-most
recently "Famous Orpheus" - "The
Maids" provided a very oppressive and
tedious evening.
"The Maids" is a single-set, single-
act play based on the lives of two
sisters who are the servants for a
wealthy older woman. The action of
the play revolves around the sisters
role-playing the mistress and the ser-
vants, and repeatedly rehearsing the
daily situations of abuse they suppos-
edly encounter. However, when the
"Madame" actually surfaces, it seems
that her relationship with the sisters is
actually much less harmless than they
have imagined.
It is the sisters' overactive imagina-
tions that seem to get the better of them,
as well as the play in general. For a
disproportionately large part of the play,
mT it 7Cn
(-Get A Piece Of The Peace... 1
1r REVIEW
The Maids
Performance Networ1#
March 23, 1996
the sisters speculate over the various
ways they could kill their mistress.
When their accepted plan ofaction fails,
their disappointment at their continued
servitude turns tragic. However, even
the death of one of the sisters is never
fully realized by the other - or the
audience - because of the continu
existence of the imaginary world of t
maids.
Therole-playing within the play is at
first very intriguing, making itdifficult
to discern the actual events composing
the play. However, the act soon be-
comes tedious, and the dialogue be-
tween the sisters begins to sound very
melodramatic.
Additionally, the relationship be-
tween the sisters (played by Adrian
Buonarroti and Joanna Woodcock}
never seems to fully materialize. Al-
though there are scenes between the
maids that hint extreme intimacy - in
all ways possible - the bond between
the actors appeared very weak, and,
therefore, the relationship was hardto
AONATHANL[YNN ILM
cii
...Come See For Yourself
Spend this summer in Israel
mr....o.t ... ln r.abt.f A..,n
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