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Wednesday, November 20, 1957

THE COLLEGE NEWS.

Page Three

 

Review of Beggar's Opera

Continued from Page 1

love scenes with Macheath were,
despite operatic convention, more
convincing than any I have seen
on the Bryn Mawr - Haverford
stage. Jim Katowitz was no less
successful as the dashing Captain
Macheath. Jim’s voice was also
exceptional, as was his ability to
put across his role as the romantic
hero. As his role demanded, Jim
dominated the stage during his
scenes. His graceful stage move-
ment, despite over-size boots, com-
bined with his voice and character-
ization to effect a most convincing
performance. Jim and Diana to-
gether were superb.

‘Mimi Gisolfi’s Mrs. Trapes was
wonderful. She certainly looked the
part of the more (than Mrs. Peach-
um) sophisticated Madame, and
her voice and manner, and particu-
larly her stage movement, were
juist as convincing. Mimi’s per-
formance had a really profession-
al polish, which, needless to say,
added greatly to the production as
a whole.

(Don Knight was superb as Mr.
Lockit. His performance left noth-
ing to be desired as, behind a won-
derful white mask with expressive
black eyebrows, he delighted the
audience with. marvelous facial
contortions. His stage movement

 

was particularly good—notably in
his dance with Peachum and in his
second act backwards exit from
the prison scene, Don’s was an-
other very professional perform-
ance,
(Peggy Cowles’ Lucy Lockit was
the only weakish element in an
otherwise consistent production.
Peggy’s characterization lacked
much of Lucy’s coldness, and was
often too immature to portray
Lucy as the villainess she was
meant to be. Perhaps the fault lay
in the fact that Gay’s Lucy wanted
Macheath to marry her because she
‘was pregenant, not- because she
loved him—in contrast to Polly,
Lucy would marry only out of ne-
cessity. Peggy’s lucky Lockit lack-
ed this very essential feature, and
as a result. her characterization
was confused and _ confusing.
Peggy’s performance, however, was
very good; the fact that the audi-
ence liked her—and they definitely
did—proved -that shéwas‘able to
overcome to a great extent the
defects of her interpretation.

The choruses were particularly
good—they looked wonderful, sang
exceptionally well, and. on the
whole provided a marvelous back-
ground for the production. The
short dances were all effectively

 

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timed and well-performed. In fact,

 

liantly illustrated

 

all the stage movement was first
rate. The opera’s music, charming
in itself, was an outstanding fea-
ture of this production—a welcome
surprise indeed to those who
doubted the wisdom of attempting
musical theatre. Several of the
individual voices were excellent,
and those members of the cast
whose voices were not naturally
of solo calibre were yet well able
to ‘put their songs across. The only
unfortunate note was that the dic-
tion of the soloists was quite spot-
ty. The orchestra, although not
always perfect, played creditably
throughout. It was well balanced
in itself—and effectively set-off by
the harpsichord—but it sometimes
offset the singers. This problem,
while a—difficult_ one, could have
been eliminated had the orchestra
rehearsed with the cast more often.

The make-up was exceptional,
particularly in the cases of Mrs.
Trapes, Mr. Lockit, and the chor-
uses. The costuming was always
effective and sometimes ingenious.
The play-within-a-play was bril-
by simulated
theatre boxes complete with styl-
ized manikins, black and white,
placed at either end of the pros-
cenium arch, and by a stylized in-
ner proscenium arch, black and
hung with white curtains, It was
a simple but very striking set—its
black and white effects well set off

 

Arthur Dudden Poses Challenges

For Practical “Humane” Education

Mr. Dudden, a member of the
history department, presented the
current events topic for this week,
“What Higher Education Owes to
the Students.” His remarks were
based on the recent technological
strides made by Russia which
dynamically reveal the shortcom-
ings of our own educational sys-
tem, :

 

the production. Although nothing
spectacular was needed in the way
of properties, that element was
well provided for. The lighting too
was very adequate.

Finally, Mr. Butman deserves
high praise for his brilliant job of
directing The Beggar’s Opera. He
staged the production beautifully,

leaving nothing to be desired in the’

way of movement and business.
Every effect was like an added
coat of polish, none of which was
lost on the delighted audience. It
was professionally done from start
to finish and—well—it just simply
sparkled!

A period satire is never the easi-
est type of production to attempt,
and in the case of The Beggar’s
Opera there was the added diffi-
culty of music. Many congratula-
tions to everyone connected with
Saturday’s performance—for, de-

 

Mr. Dudden believes that the —

purposes of higher education are
to seek a “humane life” that is
refined and cultivated in the liberal
arts and, at the same time, to ac-
quire skills which are practical in
nature for attaining, a livelihood.
The product of this kind of edu-
cation would be an integrated per-
son educated for himself and for

society.
He also proposed several chal-
lenges and criticisms against

higher education in the U. S.,
among which are the ideas that
we must ‘reject the belief that
shortcomings will be compensated
for by future developments, and
that education must serve the
‘immediate purposes of human
life” as well as the preparation for
tomorrow in a natural and social
environment,

In conclusion, Mr. Dudden out-
lined an academic program for col-
lege and pre-college levels of a
broad, unspecific nature that would

make American education “sub-
lime” with “feet of clay.”
Engagements

Josephine FE, Case ’54 to Joseph
Schnurman.

~ Lynne Levick ’60 to Mark Gelber.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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