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University Daily Kansan, February 19, 1982
Spare time
'66 KU alumna makes success of opera career
By LILLIAN DAVIS Staff Writer
Staff Writer
She was an easygoing music education major at the University of Kansas in 1965, not a serious voice major. People said she had a nice voice, but outside out of a few musical lessons in University productions, no one really noticed her. She did not have that killer voice.
Patricia Wise
Most important, she did not notice her talent.
"I didn't dare become a singer," Patricia Wise, lyric coloratura soprano and 1966 KU graduate, said. "I never thought of myself as good enough."
Now, 16 years after her graduation, the leading soprano with the Vienna State Opera has returned to her native Kina to perform Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Murphy Hall. The performance is part of the University Arts Festival sponsored by the KU Concert Series.
Wise will be accompanied by Robert Hiller Stuttzart, Germany, also a KU alumnus.
Hiller is a member of the Stuttgart State Musik Conservatory faculty as a piano and vocalist.
Wise, who has lived in Vienna since 1978,
has performed in most major American and
European opera houses and is considered to
be as fine an actress as she is a singer.
In September, she will perform the role of Voleta in the opera "La Traviata" at the Vienna Festival.
Looking back, Wise sai she realized that she classified herself early, as do many
students, measuring her talents and capabilities only by the limits of the academic
"The world seems unnecessarily intimidating when you stay in the cocoon of college," Wise said. "But I found that with a real-world perspective, it was better than I thought it was."
"You don't know what you can do until you are out there and are forced to do it," she said.
A perfectly contented music education major during her junior year. Wise described herself then as easygoing and a bit lazy—very smart, patient, and and let the old calendar turn its own naces."
Although she maintained her relaxed attitude, an apprenticeship with the Santa Fe Festival Opera the summer before her senior year set the tone for an operatic career that
"It's a wonderful life," Wise said. "I'm a true rolling stone. I have an apartment in Vienna and one in Florida, but if both burned down, there is nothing I would miss.
"I have my alarm clock, little radio,
suitcase, and off I go."
When she returned from her apprenticeship in the fall of 1965, Wise promptly entered every singing contest she could until she contracted a contract with the Kansas City Lyric Opera.
"I think I surprised a lot of people that year," Wise said, laughing. "My attitude changed. I had been introduced to the big world, and it was exciting and challenging."
She said her laziness, which she still has to content with, was her answer to not going over the fine print. "I had a lot of things on my plate."
"I've seen too many others who were overly ambitious wind up hard around the edges and never get further," she said. "Living is the main thing."
Wise, who is considered one of the most-loved European opera stars, said her experience with the professional world before graduation helped make the transition so smooth that she had been "chomping at the bit" just to get out. The week after she graduated, she was on the road for a series of concerts.
"I don't know where I got the courage," Wise misted. "I really don't. I had just decided I wanted to be someone special, to become great."
Although her original college dreams of being a choral music teacher, living in a big house in Kansas City, having 24 children and a 30-year-old son, she came true, she said she was extremely happy.
*"Performing is my life," Wise said. "That seems funny for someone who used to get sick when I was a child."
Bach harpsichordist plays plucky baroque
By KATHRYN KASE
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
When Peter Williams sits down at the脊箍硬希 he goes for baroque, and more
But the practice has caused Williams, a Bach specialist and teacher from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, mental discord.
**we're kind of schizoid, you know, those of us who perform and teach," he said. "When we're performing we think we should be teaching, when we're teaching we think we should be performing."
This week Williams had a chance to do both at the University of Kansas Bach Symposium and Arts Festival. Tuesday, Williams conducted a short music history course relating Bach's works for organ to his works for harpsichord.
And last night he performed three Bach
paintings on the hardboard harp-piece in Swarthout Restoral Hall.
THE GOAL OF HIS RECITAL, Williams said earlier this week, was to give his listeners some idea of Bach's flair for baroque music. But that's more easily said
"Harpischor playing in concert conditions is quite inaccurate," Williams said.
The problem lies in the harpsichord. Unlike a piano, whose strings are sounded by tiny hammers, a harpsichord's strings are played with a key whose a key is pinched it will sound. Williams said.
Furthermore a harpsichord has a limited loud-soft range, which can cause problems of expression for some performers, but not for Williams.
FOR WILLIAMS THAT MEANS varying temps and phrasing, and improvising during the reading.
"It just means you're expressive in different ways when you can't be expressive in the same way."
music as "arrangement," Such practices aren't spur-of-the-moment, Williams said, but learned through study of the composer's life and works.
Indeed, the study of Bach and baroque instruments has been an integral part of Williams's academic career. After receiving his doctorate in music from Cambridge, he became a professor since become director of the Russell Collection of Harpsichords and Clavichords.
And according to Williams, the baroque instrument collection is one reason he has stayed at the University of Edinburgh for twenty years.
During that time he studied Bach extensively and in 1890 and 1891 put out the first two volumes of a book, "The Organ Music of J.S. Bach," for Cambridge University Press. Williams expects the third volume to be out within the next year and a half.
BUT IT DOESN'T TAKE YEARS of study,
Williams maintains to appreciate Büch's music.
"It has short melodic phrases, and, of course, because it has an underlying rythmic pulse, it can, with almost little arrangement, be adapted for jazz." he said.
Although he's a serious student of Bach,
Williams doesn't see any harm in adapting
the composer's works for forums other than
classical.
The problem, Williams said, is that it's difficult to "sell" a traditional Bach performance.
"If you try to do something unusual, if you're a university which has a kind of arts function, if you try to devote a whole evening to art, music, it's not so easy to fill the hall," he said.
STILL, THERE IS A REVIVAL of interest in the harpsichord, Williams said, even though it is considered an obsolete instrument by today's classical composers.
SUA theatre diverse
"But in Boston today they are making more harriships that were ever made in Antwerp."
Staff Reporter
By MATT DE GALAN Staff Renorter
The act ends with the shouts of an actor, but the curtain doesn't drow.
The director, a lanky figure dressed in blue jeans, steps to center stage, waving his arms and clapping.
"You're forcing it. You're pretending fun of having it." Bart Ewing, Kansas City, Mo.
It's a rehearsal and more work lined ahead for Ewing and the cast of "Rats," one of four plays in the Third Annual SUA Theatre Series, before the opening night curtain falls.
"Side by Side by Sondheim" opened the series last night in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union. The play will also be presented at 8 a.m. and tomorrow night and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
NEXT WEEK THE three plays remaining in the series will open. "Taken in Marriage" will be performed at 8 p.m. Feb. 24 and 28 and March 6 and in the Sixth Fight Room of the Kwanza Drama.
Two one-act plays, "Rats" and "Scenes from
Soweto," will be presented at 8 p.m. Feb. 25 and
March 31.
The series is designed to offer the Lawrence area more theatre while giving local actors a chance to perform. Students from the speech and drama department direct the plays.
Director Dennis Lichtie, Richmond, Kan,
senior, bids "Side by Side by Sondheim" a musical celebration of Stephen Sondheim's best work. Sondheim is best known for his musicals "West Story" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."
THEATRE SERIES VETERAN James Olson director Thomas Babe's "Taken in Marriage." The drama follows the discussions of five women as they wait for the beginning of a wedding party. Throughout the play, inviting companions, the woman reveals deep feelings and long-hidden secrets in the course of the play.
"It's a little play with big ideas," said Olson. "It's about five different sets of values thrown into a room together. There are a lot of ideas covered here."
"Rats," by Israel Horovitz, and "Scenes from Soweto," by Steve Wilmer, are two plays with similar messages. Both show that the good intentions of a liberal society have not eliminated racism completely, said Ewing, who directs both the plays. .
SUA organizers started the theatre series three years ago to "offer an addition to university and community theatre," said Irene Carr. SUA program adviser.
ANOTHER GOAL IS to combine the talents of students, faculty, staff and community people on one stage. The cast of "Taken in Marriage" illustrates this diversity of backgrounds. The five member cast includes a theatre major, a freshman with an undeclared major, a junior teacher, a dance instructor, and a Lawrence resident with a bassist's degree in acting.
"You're getting a mixture and that mixture helps," Carr said. "The Lawrence community people may be use to doing things one way and the other, so together they may be able to learn from each other."
One of the unique features of the SUA series is the opportunity for undergraduates to direct the work of the faculty.
"IT'S VERY RARE in a college situation to be able to direct as an undergraduate," Olson said. "It was a wonderful experience for me. It was one of those rare chances."
Another unusual feature of the series is the absence of economic and academic pressures on the productions. No one is paid and only Ollon, whose work is part of an honors course, will receive academic credit. And SUA says it is not out to make a profit.
THE FINANCIAL GOALS, she said, are to stay within the SUA-funded budget and to break even at the box office. Because of strong ticket demand, she discussed about the chances of achieving these goals.
SUA to show Murnau films
"With each year we become more successful, but we're not really planning on making money on the board."
She stressed, however, that tickets for all shows were still available at the SUA office in the KUAS Union. Prices are $2.50 for students with KUID and $3.50 for non-students.
Mike Gebert, Wichita junior and coordinator of the film series, said recently that Murnau is considered one of the top dozen film directors in cinema history. He is known for art cinematography and rarely use film director's
The eight surviving films of German silent film director Friedrich W. Murnau will be shown, some of them for the first time in this spring, at the Spencer Museum of Art this spring.
By CATHERINE BEHAN
Staff Writer
Included in the series is the first screen version of "Dracula." "Nosferat," meaning "the undead." Gebert said, is Murnau's most famous film and the most convincing Dracula film.
ALL OF THE FILMS are silent, but several,
including "Surprise," have musical scores. All of
the films have no soundtracks.
The series, co-sponsored by the University General Research Fund and Student Union (UJSU) for its research activities.
of the films except "Sunrise," "Tabu" and "City Girl," were made in Germany. "Tabu," Murnau's last film, was released in 1831 before his death in a car accident the same year.
will be presented in the auditorium of Spencer Museum. All films are free.
JON HARDESTY/Kansan Staff
MANY OF MURUAU'S films are no longer in existence because many early films were shot on video.
"Mostly films he made while in Germany did not survive." Gebert said. "It's a problem with a lot of old films. They were made on film stock that tends to disintegrate."
THE SERIES WILL BE SHOWN every Saturday except March 20, starting tomorrow with one of Murnau's better known films, "Sunrise," and ending April 10 with "Faust."
The other six films will be "Tabu," Feb. 27; "The Last Laugh," March 6; "City Girl," March 13; a double feature with "Nosferatu" and "Haunted Castle," March 17; and "Tartuffe." April 3. All the films except "Tartuffe" will begin at 2 p.m.; "Tartuffe" will begin at 1:30 p.m.
Jeanne Averill explains her troubles with men in Julie Broakki, left, and Marv Neufeld, right, in the SUA Theatre Production, "Taken in Marriage."
Trombone Week offers a variety of music
BY ELIZABETH MORGAN
Stuff Writer
Staff Writer
Music styles from Renaissance to avant-garde will be performed on the trombone by students and faculty next week. Tomorrow is the day of Trombone Week, sponsored by the KUCSH.
The week Neil Humfield, president of the International Trombone Association and chairman of instrumental music at East Texas State University, will be the guest artist.
HUMFELD WILL PERFORM with the KU Trombone Choir at 8 p.m. Thursday at Swarorth Rectal Hall, Murphy Hall, and with the KU University Theatre at 9 p.m. Feb. 28 in University Theatre. Murphy
Humfeld is a native Kansan and a KU graduate. Stephen Anderson, assistant professor of music performance and assistant dean of the School of Fine Arts, said recently he asked Humfeld at an International Trombone Association workshop whether he would like to come to KU and work with the students, and Humfeld had said "he would love to."
Humfield also will conduct clinics, master classes and private lessons Thursday and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Humboldt College.
TROMBONE STUDENTS will give recitals in
Swarthout at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through
Thursday
Anderson will begin Trombone Week by giving a faculty recital at 8 p.m. Saturday in Swartwout.
The Symphonic Band Winter Concert,
teamed with Anderson and conducted by
Anderson will close the week.
Weekend Arts
TODAY
TOMORROW
UNIVERSITY ARTS FESTIVAL is opening "SHE STORES TO CONQUER," a play by Oliver Goldsmith, at 8 p.m. in the University Theatre. All seats are reserved. For information call the Murphy Hall box office. The play also will be performed tomorrow night.
A FACULTY TROMBONE RECITAL will be
pammed. Anderson at 8 p.m. in
Swarthout Recital.
BACH SYMPOSIUM CLASSES will be given by PETER WILLIAMS, visiting harpschiordist from the University of Edinburgh, at 9 a.m. in 338 Murphy Hall.
A FACULTY VOICE RECTALT will be performed by HUGH QIVENN assistant professor of speech language.
SUNDAY
UNIVERSITY ARTS FESTIVAL performance by PATRICIA WISE, operatic soprano, will be at 3:30 p.m. in the University Theatre. All seats are reserved. For information call the Murphy Hall box office.
INTERNATIONAL THEATRE: COSAAN AFRICAN DANCE will be presented at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall. Tickets will be on sale at the door.