ENTERTAINMENT
---
The University Daily KANSAN
January 27,1984 Page 6
PUCCINI'S LYRIC TALE OF LOVE IN BOHEMIAN PARIS
A night at the opera: 'La Boheme' remains a love-is-grand soap
By SUSAN WORTMAN Staff Reporter
Critics call it the Renaissance of opera.
Major opera houses on the East Coast have and sell-out crowds, and at the University of Chicago's Meyer Music Hall.
The show also marks the the 88th anniversary of the opera's premiere in Turin, France.
On Wednesday, the 1984 University Arts Festival and the Concert Series will bring the New York City Opera National to Hoch Actuarial for a performance of Puccini's 'La Boheme.'
"I have been amazed, especially given the ticket prices. We have never sold out two weeks before the show. But in New York, a ticket would have been $50." she said.
THE RESPONSE TO the opera has been surprising, says Charla Jenkins, public relations director for the performing arts at the University.
"La Boheme is comparable to 'Chorus Line' or 'Okalahoma,' or any musical comedy that has been on Broadway forever and ever," she said. "A few of the most popular, most well-known."
The opera is about four poor artists living on the Left Bank of Paris during the 19th century. The poet Rodolo, played by Christopher Cameron, and a seamstress named Mimi, played by Nicole Philibosian, fall passionately in love.
"MIMI, HOWEVER, is very frail and sickly,
but they are passionately brave.
true trust. Mimi eventually
dies in his arms, but it's a love-conquers-all story," Jenkins said.
The devotion of Rodolfo and Mimi is contrasted by the cold romance between the painter Marcello, played by Richard Pennington, another artist Musetta, played by Lisbeth Lloyd.
"Musetta and Marcello are the other side of the coin. They are always fighting. She firts a
' "La Boheme" is comparable to "Chorus Line" or "Oklahoma," or any musical comedy that has been on Broadway forever and ever. It is one of the most popular, most well-known.'
- Charla Jenkins, Public relations director for the performing arts
lot. she is the Erica Kane, the seductrist of the opera," Jenkins said.
The opera tells about their lives as struggling artists.
"But 'La Boheme' is a different story." Jenkins said. "'La Boheme' is almost the forerunner of soap opera. People can understand it. Also most people are familiar with it, and that always appeals, especially if it is done in Italian."
THE CONCERT SERIES doesn't bring an
opera company to the campus every year, but with the interest shown in "La Boheme," more opera companies may be scheduled in the series next year, she said.
"Part of the interest is due to the success of the Kansas City Opera, but also, opera may have grown because of public television," she said. "People see it on TV and are more aware of it. It was really surprised by how many people watched it on TV."
Opera has also become more popular simply because it is more available and people can afford it.
The company was founded in 1979 as a means for young singers to get on stage singing experience. Jenkins said the group is primarily composed of singers in an extension of the New York Opera Company
"Opera used to be expensive and that was especially true in New York. But here, a student can see it for $7. That is really reasonable," she said.
ANOTHER REASON that people shy away from opera is that they cannot understand it. They don't want to spend their evening struggling to understand a production in a theater, so they call the La Boheme" will be sung in Italian, people will be able to understand it, Jenkins said.
The group is totally self-contained, bringing its own staff and orchestra
The New York City Opera National Company began its spring tour last week. It will work its way through the Midwest, performing in Manhattan and Kansas City. Then it will wind through the South before heading back for New York.
Spencer show highlights works of Parisian artists
By KEVIN LOLLAR
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
For 70 years, beginning in the 1870s, Paris was the mecca of modern art. Some of the greatest Parisian artists of the period, such as Renoir, Degas and Picasso, will be represented at the Spencer Museum of Art this spring.
“Paris and Modern Art, 1878-1949,” will open Sunday and run through June 16. The works are from the collections of the Alex Hillman Foundation.
Among the artists whose works will be on display are Cezanne, Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Picasso.
THE PRESTIGIOUS EXHIBIT consists of 30 paintings and drawings that represent a cross section of modern movements in art, including Expressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Post-Cubist.
Marla Prather, curator of painting and sculpture at the Spencer Museum, said that although the exhibition is modern art, visitors should not expect abstract art.
Another exhibit, "A Century of Master Prints: Paris 1850-1900," made up of French prints from the Spencer Museum and from other public and private collections, will be shown simultaneously. This exhibition in the Hull collection works by the artists in the Hull collection.
"PEOPLE WILL NOTICE the general tenor is representational," she said. "Paris was not a center of abstract art. The artists abstract from nature. The Impressionists begin with nature and record the ephemeral quality of nature."
Post-Impressionism, with Cezanne at the forefront, followed as a reaction against what the artists felt was a lack of validity and substance in Impressionist art. Post-Impressionism was a return to a more traditional art form, Prather said.
A third modern movement, which began around the turn of the century, was Faumism. This movement is marked by violent color and bold distortion, so violent and bold, that at the first public appearance of these artists in 1905, critics dersively called them "Fauves," or wild beasts.
Although nothing from Matise's Fauvist period will be on display, the work of two other eminent Fauves, Andre Derain and Raoul Dufy, will be.
However, three of Matisse's later works will be on display: "The Model," a 1944 ink drawing; "Pineapple," a 1948 oil painting, and "Paper Cutout," a 1949 paper cutout.
Even when the artists became more abstract, as did Picasso and the Cubists, nature is still recognizable. The traditional subjects of art — landscape, human figures and still life — remain the subjects of the artists represented in the exhibition.
A number of significant works will be on display, including five works of Picasso.
"THESE WORKS REPRESENT Picasso from 1966, right around the time he invented Cubism, to the 1930s surrealism," said Prather. "Mother and Child," from 1921, represents the classical phase of Picasso's art when he was happily married. Art often reflects the artist's life. 'Mother and Child' reflects a time of conjugal bliss."
February will be a month of programs associated with the exhibition
On March 31, Rosamond Bernier, lecturer with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, will speak on "Paris and Great Artists" at the New York University Audium. Bernier, called "the Mét's living treasure," was a personal friend of a number of the artists in the exhibition.
"L'ANANAS," translated "The Pineapple" in English, is a 1948 oil painting on canvas by French artist Henri Matisse. The painting is part of the "Paris and Modern Art 1878-1949" exhibit that opens Sunday at the Spencer Museum of Art. The exhibit will feature 30 paintings and drawings by noted Parisian artists.
Lunch music, maestro; concerts to be at noon
By the Kansan Staff
Students and faculty will be able to enjoy music with their lunches at the KU Department of Music presents a Brown Bag Concert each Monday in the fall and the end of February in the Strong Hall rotunda
Each concert will last from noon until 1 p.m.
Scott Watson, coordinator of the series,
the concerts would give students and faculty an opportunity to perform somewhere besides a concert hall.
The schedule for the Brown Bag Concert is:
Tuesday, the Kansas Woodwind Quintet; Thursday,
KU Student Brass Quintet; Feb. 9, Jack
Winerock on the piano; Feb. 14, KU Saxophone
Quartet; Feb. 16, Coronach Tuba Quartet; Feb.
21, KU Horn Ensemble; Feb. 23, KU Student
Woodwind Quintet; and Feb. 28, KU Men's Glee
Club.
Orford String Quartet brings KU its music
By the Kansan Staff
The Orford Strick Quartet, recognized as "one of Canada's national treasures", will perform at 8 p.m. feb. 4, in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre in Hallmurg Hall. The concert, part of the Chamber Music Series, is also an event in the 1984 University Arts Festival.
Since its inception in 1965, the quartet has won many prizes and awards including the 1974 European Broadcasting Union's International String Quartet Competition in Stockholm.
Since that time, the quartet has regularly toured throughout Eastern and Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Latin America and Australia.
In addition to its formal concert at KU, members of the Orford will also hold an open rehearsal for students attending the KU String Festival.
ON CAMPUS
TODAY
"AFRICA: Portraits of People and Places in the Northeast," a photography show by Nancy Loving, will be on display in 126 Summerfield Hall.
"BOEVER BOATS, Hulls and Floaters 1980-1984," boat- related sculptures by Mark Roeyer, will be on display in the gallery of the Art and Design Building.
"INVISIBLE IN AMERICA," the prints of Marion Pilft, will be on display in the Kansas University Museum.
BIOLOGY CLUB for undergraduates will
be present in the Sunflower Room of the
Union Cafeteria.
SIGMA DELTA CHI will sponsor a student government forum at 3:30 p.m. in Room 100 of 10F
BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATIONS of the Black Caribas," a speech by Michael Crawford, will be from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room of the Union.
STEVE WISEMAN doctoral recital on the piano will be at p.p.m. in Swartwout Recital Hall.
SPARE TIME
SUA FILMS presents "Baby It Is You" at 3:30 in Woodruff Auditorium of the Kansas University
TODAY & TOMORROW
SUA FH.I.S. presents "The Last Waltz," at auditorium tomorrow in Woodruff Auditorium of the Union.
SUA FILMS presents "West Side Story," at 2 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium of the Union.
SUNDAY
Theatre celebrates 30th year with '1984'-type production
By MELISSA BAUMAN
Besides commemorating the year 1844, the University of Kansas Theatre for Young People will also celebrate its 30th anniversary with the musical "The Nutcracker," which day in Crafton-Preyer Theater in Murphy Hall.
George Orwell's "1844" and Big Brother have become familiar to everyone in this year. Now Orwellmania has even come to children's theater.
A RECEPTION FOR ALUMN1 of the KU-TYP
alumni at Adams College (following the performance)
Staff Reporter
But, Mudge Miller’s “GPRS, Ete” is not as depressing as my overall totanian world. The dada-like nature of the image is very important.
The play is set in 1884 and Big Brother is Otto who keeps strict watch on the citizen of Otto.
Rozelle the Rebelious helps a traveling artist bring about Otto's downfall. But the other townpeople stick to their roles. Peter the Prudent is always cautious and compromising and Stacia the Silly is permitted to whine and giggle, but never to make sense.
But Otto's favorite color will eventually lead to downfall. And unlike Big Brother, Otto the Turtle doesn't get along with him.
Because his favorite word, Otto, begins with O,
must the字母. Since Otto's favorite color
is orange, Otto starts with an orange.
AFTER ROZELLE HELPS the artist. Edward
Johnson, escape Ottoville, he eventually returns to paint a portrait of Otto
But since the only color in Ottowle is orange, the portrait is just an orange smear. So Otto wore a brown hat and wore a bow tie.
"The freedom to be an artist and to use one's artistry will near the downfall of any dictatorship," he said. "Art has always been a thorn in the side of dictatorship."
This exception eventually causes the dictatorial society to break down.
Jed Davis, professor of theater and director of the play, said that the play revealed as much about the ills of a dictatorship as about the freedom of art.
THE PLAY WILL TAKE an extended spring tour to 19 area cities including Wichita, Salina, Topeka and Neodesha Davis said.
In KU-TYP's 30 years, it has produced 61
plays for more than $20,000 people.
BY BERKE BREATHED
Students appearing in "OPQRS, Etc." include Brad Knauss, Abilene sophomore, as Edward Johnson; John Keating, Spring Hill senior, as Peter the Prudent; Vincera Cabrera, Leavenworth senior, as Otto the Official; Martha Priest, as Robert the Rebellion; Sanderson, Topeka Junior, as Stacia the Silly; and Holly Hutson, Dublin, Ohio, sophomore, as Quilla the Quiet.
The program produces many children's classics and original plays by KU students. For six years, KU-TYP has been part of the Kansas Arts Commission's touring program which allows communities to apply for financing assistance to sponsor KU-TYP tour productions.
BLOOM COUNTY
4