Arts/Entertainment
University Daily Kansan / Friday, January 19, 1990
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KU opera opens with blood, vice
By Bryce Tache
OK. pen ready?
The Final Jeopardy answer is: greed, jealousy, adultery and murder.
The question: What is yesterday's episode of "Days of Our Lives?"
The correct response is Claudio Monteverdi's opera, "The Coronation of the Opera." The English translation of this opera, presented by the KU Opera Workshop, made its debut yesterday at the Inge Theatre and will run through Sunday.
Stage Director Norman Paige, professor of voice, said the opera would appeal to the average audience member more than one might think, even though it was written about 350 years ago.
"There are a lot of theatrical devices," he said. "There are very strong, passionate love scenes really no less explicit than what you find in today's movies. And it's a very bloody opera, although the bloodshed occurs offstage."
"Coronation" takes place in Rome about A.D. 55 and is based on the emperor Nero's love for the young and beautiful Poppea. The only hitch that is Nero *is hitched*. Octavia, the wronged wife, plots the murder of Poppea but her plan backfires and Nero sentences her to exile.
Nero and Poppea are guilty, however, of sins of their own when they
order the death of Nero's counselor Seneca. The two stop at nothing until they are married in the final scene and Poppea is crowned empress.
Paige and Musical Director Mark Ferrell, assistant professor of vocal coaching and accompanying, selected a cast of 25 for the two-act opera. Most roles have been double cast, which allows more students a chance to perform, Paige said.
Mary Jane Posegate-Smith, Kirkwood, M., graduate student, who will star as Poppea in tonight's and Sunday's showings, said it was a challenge for her to play such a vindictive character.
"I think you really just have to throw everything about yourself away and put yourself in that time period," she said. "Those people were out for money or their position in life more than they were for relationships, like we would picture today."
Peige said that even though the characters weren't exactly likeable, the occasional comic scenes and the occasional balanced out the barbaric behavior.
Performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are on sale in the Department of Music and Dance, 452 Murphy Hall, and also will be available at the door. They are $5 for the public, $3 for KU students and $4 for senior citizens and other students.
Lillian Sengpieh). Topeka sophomore; serenades Fred Scheff, Providence, R.I., graduate student, during a rehearsal.
KU pianist featured for TV
Soloist story to be shown at concert
By a Kansan reporter
A crew from the Nebraska Educational Television network came to Lawrence yesterday to produce a portrait of piano soloist Ming Fang, Beijing junior and finalist in the 1989 J. Edmunds and Thelma Miller Young Artist competition in Lincoln, Neb.
Phil EllsworthKANSAN
The portrait will be televised on March 6 during the intermission of a live broadcast of a concert by the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra at Nebraska's Lied Center, where Fang will perform in competition with two other finalists.
The winner, who will be announced at the end of the performance, will receive $1,250. The second-place winner will receive $500, and the third-place winner $250.
Ming Fang
"Publicity-wise, the televised concert will be very important because I will have the chance to perform with a major orchestra." Fang said.
KU will exhibit Chinese art
Bv Brvce Tache
Kansan staff writer
chinese painter Wu Guanzhong
spent ten years at a labor farm
during the Cultural Revolution of the
1960s and then assumed to carrying coal
and plating iron.
It wasn't by choice. Wu's art was criticized as capitalistic because of the Western elements integrated into his paintings. The new government did no need for his art.
So Wu, with other intellectuals of the time, was sent to the form
the time, was sent to the farms.
Today. Wu is considered the least
cool contemporary painter in China,
and having studied Tang Li, professor of art
history.
An exhibition of 63 of Wu's works will be at the Spencer Museum of Art's Kress Gallery from Jan. 21 to March 4.
Li said Wu is the one Chinese artist best able to combine elements of the East and West in his art.
Wu began studying Western art in Chiba in 1936, Li said. In 1947, Wu studied in Paris, where he stayed for
three years. During that time, his exposure to Western art grew.
Li said, "He was not able to find his place in China because they didn't want his stuff, his Western ideas. Western aesthetics were not acceptable. Even though he had had the most advanced training in the West, he was not given any important position."
Meanwhile, the People's Republic of China had been established after a series of civil wars. Wu returned to contribute to contribute what he had learned.
In 1968, during the Cultural Revolu
The one time Wu was allowed to pick up a brush during the 10 years at the farm was when he was summoned to Beijing by Premier Zhou Enlai. His task was to decorate the walls of hotels and restaurants for President Nixon's visit. After his services no longer were needed, Wu returned to the farm.
It wasn't until the late '70s that Wu
was recognized by the Chinese government as an artist.
Huel-sien Lin, a curatorial intern and Taiwan graduate student, has studied Wu's art and agreed that he is leading contemporary artist in China.
Now, young Chinese artists look up to Wu as their cultural leader.
"He emphasizes a lot on the formal aspects, which would mean lines and colors instead of content," Lin said. "But the most important thing is the way he combines Chinese methods, Chinese materials and techniques with the Western style."
Li said, "You can get the exciting reactions to the art because of the juxaposition of certain formal elements: the colors, the shapes, the lines, the dots and so on. These things can generate a lot of exciting ideas, and that, of course, is what he has explored."
Li said Wu's paintings were in demand outside China. Last year, one of his paintings sold for $200,000 at an auction — the highest price paid for any modern Chinese painting.
Exhibitor's portraits show 20 years of work
The Art & Design gallery is showing a collection of photographer Terry Evans' work from Sunday through Feb. 2. She will speak at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 2 in the gallery.
Evans, who lives in Salina, said 75 color, and black-and-white portraits
spanning 20 years would be exhibited. Many of the subjects are friends and family members, she said.
Evans said she spent equal time capturing both people and landscapes with her camera. She said she
began her career doing documentary work.
Evans, who also teaches photography at Bethany College in Lindsborg, is the author of the 1986 book, *Pictures: Images of Ground and Sky.*
FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY SKILLS PROGRAM
Techniques to help students of any language with:
reading listening writing
speaking mental blocks testing
Wednesday, January 24
3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Daisy Hill Room, Burge Union
FREE!
Presented by the Student Assistance Center
Capture the Moment...
The Krauss Quartet in concert...
Including a performance of Steve Reich's new work
Different Trains
Presented by the University of Kansas
School of Fine Arts Chamber Music Series
8:00 p.m. Thursday, January 25, 1990
Crafton-Preyer Theatre
Tickets on sale in the Murphy Hall Box Office;
all seats reserved; public $15 & $12;
KU and K-12 students $7.50 & $6;
senior citizens and other students $14 & $11; for reservations, call 913/864-3982.
Funded in part by the Kansas Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts through their participation in the Mid-America Arts Alliance;
additional support provided by the
KU Student Activity Fee;
Swarthout Society, and the KU Endowment Association.
...You'll be glad you did!
Capture the Moment.
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