THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan Serving KU for 76 of its 100 Years LAWRENCE, KANSAS Friday, April 29, 1966 76th Year, No. 125
Photo courtesy of Wall Hess, Journal-World
BEVERLY WOLFF AS CARRY NATION Carry Nation bashes a saloon in Topeka in the prologue of the opera.
'College' seniors given individual study plan
KU seniors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences next fall will have the opportunity to participate in a new program designed to allow extensive independent study.
The College Senior Independent Study Program will allow capable seniors to pursue independent study during their entire last year or during their last semester as undergraduates. A maximum of 16 credit hours can be earned in one semester in either two or three disciplines.
professor will be assigned to the student. He will be allowed to work with a professor of his choosing. The student will be required, however, to secure the approval of the faculty under whom he wishes to work.
A MAXIMUM of eight hours of credit can be earned in one discipline in any one semester. No
Called by Aldon Bell, assistant dean of the college, "a logical extension of the whole idea of honors work," the program is expected to have from 10 to 15 participants next fall.
Admission to the program will be granted by the College Honors Committee. Interested students will be expected to have a 2.25 grade point average or better. A high GPA does not, however,
U.S. adds 5,000 to Viet Nam force
SAIGON — (UPI) — A U.S. Army brigade of 5,000 men landed today in South Viet Nam to raise American troop strength here to 255,000—equal to the number of Viet Cong and North Vietnamnames regulars in the South. Another small advance contingent of a 4,-500-man Australian task force also arrived today.
Arrival of the American reinforcements coincided with stepped up U.S. air efforts to block further Communist infiltration into the South. Hanoi has been forced to resort to fleets of junks to bring in men and the U.S. Navy disclosing today another devastating raid against a junk flotilla.
blocked the north end of the Ho Chi Minh trail.
U. S. planes also attacked military targets in North Viet Nam Thursday, destroying two antiaircraft sites and damaging two others. The planes hit vital bridges on roads leading south toward the border. Another raid damaged 30 trucks in a Communist supply dump.
A SPOKESMAN SAID Navy jets destroyed 50 supply-laden Communist junks late Thursday and damaged 40 to bring the tally in the three-day campaign against the junks to 276 destroyed and 201 damaged. Hanoi began turning to junks when air raids
Fighters from the carriers Enterprise, Kitty Hawk and Hancock hit the junk fleet late Thursday in North Vietnamese waters a short distance from the demarcation line between North and South Viet Nam.
WEATHER
Cloudy today with scattered showers and thunderstorms developing tonight through tomorrow is forecast by the U.S. Weather Bureau. High today in the 70s. Low temperature tonight will be near 45.
guarantee admission to the program, according to Bell.
Ell said that the college office would like to have applications for admission to the program for next fall by the end of this year. He said students wishing detailed information should come to the college office.
'Carry Nation' stirs audience with her story
By Judith Faust
There was a premiere last night in Murphy Hall—the first performance of "Carry Nation." But it was much more than a first performance.
Then at last, with the house lights out, the overture sounding, and the opera begun, the people all remembered—though some had never forgotten—why they were here. An opera, "Carry Nation," music by Douglas Moore and libretto by William North Jayme, commissioned by the University of Kansas for its centennial, was being performed for the first time.
It was long gowns and furs, satin lapels and black ties, flooding arclights, and arriving first-nighters. It was people laughing and talking and greeting friends, and not a few looking self-conscious. Mostly it was people looking at other people.
ONE COED'S eyes grew wide as she breathed to a companion, "That's my speech teacher. He's beautiful." A few feet from her one woman covertly examined another with an elaborate coifure and said, "I wonder how many hair-pieces that took." A young man looked at the people around him and asked his friend, "Can you believe this is KU?"
With the dimming house lights, the atmosphere changed. The pace quickened. People stopped looking at one another and began looking for their seats. Somehow the ushers managed to stay calm and smiling in the crush. In the audience there was the flurry of settling—smoothing long skirts, crossing legs, quickly reading programs—accompanied by the preparatory undertone of the orchestra in the pit tuning and warming up.
THE PEOPLE watched the prologue and the first act, and they were caught up in its liveliness and motion.
The story as well as the music and voices held people. So simple in itself, it focused on the complex web of forces and people that shaped Carry.
SOON TWO new figures joined the cast on stage, those of Moore and Jayme, and the audience rose to its feet.
As the audience stood for intermission, a young wife turned to her husband and said animatedly, "You can really begin to see why she was the way she was, can't you?" He replied with an inarticulate "mmmphh."
When the curtain finally stayed down, the people had to leave. They edged slowly up the crowded aisles talking and laughing, palms still tingling from the aplause. Once again they faced the bright lights, and they had only one more chance to look at each other. But they had seen a new opera performed for the first time, and they had plenty to talk about.
Soon, dimming houselights drew them back into the theatre again, and they heard the opera's last act. When the last act was completed, the applause began, and soon after that, when the four principals had joined the chorus on stage, the curtain calls began, and it was easy to lose count. Occasionally the cast could be seen looking toward stage right, and music director Robert Baustian would motion for someone there to join them on the stage, but no one came.
KANSAN REVIEW
Carry becomes legend
By Larry Ketchum
Up went the curtain. Carry Nation was home again and thousands were at the University Theatre last night to welcome her.
The theatre last night to we hear the story played upon the stage is unfamiliar to most of us. We hear the name and we conjure a grand old fanatic flailing her hatchet in the barrooms of the country. Shattering glass, spilt whiskey, words of God's wrath, and a grand entrance mark our thoughts of Carry's life work.
BUT THE OPERA is another story. We find Carry a woman. She loves, she gives birth, and suffers the death of a husband she could not reach in time to save.
The world premiere of an opera at KU has been a great and glorious event. The opera itself is bound to make a more lasting mark.
DOUGLAS MOORE, the composer, and William North Jayme, the librettist, have given us a moving portrait of what drives a woman to fanaticism. Carry Nation was emotionally injured by the death of her alcoholic husband, the torment of her God-fearing father, and the inane psychosis of her mother.
Beverly Wolff, mezzo soprano of the New York City Opera Company, plays the title role. She is powerful in both voice and stature, qualities difficult to find in a woman performer.
HER CHARACTERIZATION of Carry shows extreme dedication. She is consistent; her voice is well controlled.
Carry's father is played by Kenneth Smith, now chairman of the department of voice and a
former member of the Metropolitan Opera Company.
pany. His voice is well-defined, deep, and very understandable, unlike many of the student performers in the production. Towering above his daughter he shows the tremendous strength necessary to take Carry away from her husband.
John Reardon, leading baritone of both the Metropolitan and New York City Opera companies, played the part of Charles, Carry's alcoholic husband.
REARDON MATCHES his strength against that of Carry's father but ultimately loses. Reardon and Miss Wolff are compatible on the stage and share it well.
Patricia Brooks, lyric coloratura soprano of the New York City Opera Company, portrays Carry's mother. The role is difficult in that the mother is both pathetic and humorous.
Miss Brooks puts her characterization on an even keel. Her character is demented but, at the same time, the audience laughs at her. Miss Brooks, by her talent, is able to keep the character from appearing ludicrous.
ROBERT BAUSTIAN, musical director, and Lewin Goff, stage director, have shown once again what their combined talents can create.
CHOREOGRAPHY BY Tomi Baker is unpretentious and graceful. Particularly fascinating is the last scene where Carry is enveloped in a sea of pleading hands.
Choral direction, by Clayton Krehbiel, is well done. However, members of the chorus need practice in both diction and projection.