The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 37

1 rr gill3 MONTREAL, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1987 ADIeim Expatriate soprano sparkles Hs i- fa ri) 4fP4 1 filter 1 IM tr III i Ml I Edith Wient, soprano, in a recital lor the series of the Ladies' Morning Musical Club, in McGill's Pollack Concert Hall, Sunday. Norman Shetfor at the piano, with special guest, Kai Mor, cellist. Seligkeit Der und Traume Aut dem Wasser zu singen Heidenroeslein Schubert An Silvia Die Mutter Erde Das Lied im Gruenen Der Juengling an der Quelle Liebhaber in alien Gestalten Der Hirt aut de.m Felsen Schubert Four excerpts, from the Spanisches Lieder-buch Hugo Wolf Four German Folksongs Brahms Mem Herz ist stumm fluhe, meine Seeie Zueignung Strauss By ERIC McLEAN Gazette Music Critic Edith Wiens, the soprano who sang yesterdayfor the Ladies' Morning Musical Club, is from western Canada. Someone told me Winnipeg, another said north of Saskatoon whatever. The important thing is that she has made it big in the operatic and concert circuits of the world; bigger, in fact, than she has in Canada.

One of the possible reasons for this is that she has married and settled in Munich, and it is from there that she flies out to her engagements in Hong Kong, Glyndebourne, Buenos Aires, or Salzburg; Her entrance on the stage of Pollack Hall yesterday was quite disarming. She bore a striking resemblance to the famous Barbie doll with her corn-silk hair, and her splendid white satin gown accented with bits of glitter. But the resemblance ended there. Infallible ear She has a high, clear soprano that made me think immediately of Kathleen Battle; a musician of a quite different character, but the same timbre of voice. Again, like Battle, her, ear is infallible, and she sings right on the note.

The program, throughout which she was ably supported by the pianist Norman. Shetler, was made up of old favorites from the Lieder repertoire. If they were made to sound adventurous, it was largely because these songs have been neglected on the recital circuit for the past dozen years or so, and, in consequence, are regaining their bloom. The music of Schubert occupied the entire first half of her recital, closing with an unusual version of Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, written only a month before the composer's death. Originally scored for soprano with piano and clarinet obbligato, it was presented pn this occasion with the clarinet pa1, being played by Edith Wiens' husband Kai Moser, a cellist.

While he played it very well, many members of the audience must have had difficulty, as I did, imagining the Shepherd on the Rock with a cello alongside. The extravagant poetry of the Wolf songs was put across in a very persuasive manner, and the humor and variety of Brahms' folksong settings was 'well underlined. For some singers, it might seem suicidal to close a recital with a work as familiar as Strauss's Zueignung, but she carried it off with reat effect and was recalled for an encore: Gabriel Faure's Mai. erioys optimistic in the sections (where) I failed," he said. He said his favorite film was The Purple Rose of Cairo, in which Mia Farrow plays a Milquetoast-type woman seduced by a screen actor who steps out of a movie to woo her.

"The object of the movie was very simply to show that we all have to -choose between reality and fantasy, and we're of course forced to choose reality; the other way lies Allen said. Undeserved success Allen saved his sharpest swipes for his earliest films. He said the swinging 1965 sex comedy What's New, Pussycat? was an "unde-' served" financial success. His 1969 Take the Money and: Run, with Allen as the bumbling criminal Virgil Starkwell, suffered from "gags of any sort, of any kind." His 1971 Bananas, in which Allen played a hypochondriac ensnared in a Latin American uprising, marred by "an infantile type of fun-' niness." Even Manhattan, his sophisticate ed 1979 film about a black-and-white city and the emotional colors of the people who inhabit it, got its knocks. "What carries you through Manhattan for me is more the style than anything else," he said.

"I would do-Manhattan differently now. It's not a film I wouldn't do today, but I would do it differently." He praised both Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow, actresses with whom he has been romantically linked and( whose careers he has enriched.He called Keaton a "hilarious comedienne," and said he could not have written her title character in Annie' Hall without her "because I was taking things directly from things I'd heard her say." Farrow received particular kudos for her work as a gun moll in the 1984 movie Broadway Danny Rose. "She was great in it she was wonderful from the first day," Allen said. Despite their personal attachment, Allen said he and Farrow did have their differences. "She is surrounded by kids and pets; I live by myself across the park (Central Park)," he said.

"I don't have to be there when the diapers are changed or anything really awful happens." fairs, will attend the gala. The evening begins with hors d'oeuvres at 6:30 p.m. The performance, beginning at 8 p.m., will be hosted by Linda Sorgini (currently starring as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls) and David Francis (last seen in Be Back Before Midnight at The Piggery). Joan Orenstein, now portraying La Sagouine at Centaur, will be one of several actors reading excerpts from plays developed by Playwright's Workshop. For information or reservations call Playwright's Workshop at 843-3685.

tune CJAD. The radio airwaves are in urgent need of some intelligent outrageousness. I hope CKUT comes to its senses and turns the odd hour over to the McGill Young Trotskyite Snake-Handlers or whomever. But even if its politics are pretty tame, Montreal's newest radio station is certain to enliven the airwaves just by playing all the inter-' esting music that commercial radio won't touch. Susan Davis of CJFM has been honored by The Record, a radio and recording industry trade publication.

Davis was named program director of the year in the Adult -Contemporary format category. Henry Van Den Hoogen, who has just joined the staff of CJFM, was named The Records music director of the year for his work at CFTR, an adult contemporary sta- tion in Toronto. This is the second straight year that The Record has honored Montrealers. CHOM's Terry Di-Monte won a 1986 citation as radio personality of the year. Together again briefly Sonny Bono, 52, and his ex-wife Cher, 41, this weekend.

Bono revealed that he is plan-sang their 1960s hit I've Got You Babe to- ning to make a showbiz comeback in a singing gether on Late Night with David Letterman act with the couple's daughter Chastity, 18. LONDON (AP) Woody Allen, long his own toughest critic, says he regrets having made some of his early films, and that even his more sophisticated comedies pale in comparison with the great tragic works he admires. "I don't feel I've made a great film yet in my life," the actor and director said, referring to works such as Vittorio de Sica's The Bicycle Thief and Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion. "I'd like to be remembered as someone who made at least one, if not one or two, really great films," he said. Allen, speaking in an interview broadcast this weekend by the British Broadcasting indicated that he would like to make serious movies of his own, sometime soon.

The. hour-long BBC show, Woody Allen: Love. Death, Sex, And Matters Arising, was taped last June at Allen's New York apartment. Allen, about to become a first-time father, also discussed that fact. "I hope it's a she; that would be very important to me," Allen, 51, said of the child he and actress Mia Farrow, his longtime companion, are expecting this winter.

BBC producer Margaret Sharp said Allen agreed to the interview on condition it not be sold in the U.S. "I think he thinks Europeans generally understand his films, and he appreciates them," Sharp said. The normally-reclusive Allen, whose honors include a double win of Academy Awards in 1978 for writing and directing Annie Hall, repeatedly emphasized his love for weighty material and his desire to be taken seriously. But fans, he noted, have always demanded funny films. A higher plane "I don't mean to downgrade comedy I think it's a wonderful thing but I put the other (drama) on a higher plane," he said.

"I think my films have been good to the degree that I could make them-more serious," said Allen, adding he is drawn to tragic playwrights like August Strindberg and Eugene O'Neill, and prefers Shakespeare's dramas to his comedies. Allen said Hannah and Her Sisters, his 1986 critical and box-office success, was "more 'up' and optimistic than I had intended, and consequently was very popular." But the optimism exacted a price: "It's only Playwright group marks 25th year Theatre patrons will get readings, music, and hors d'oeuvres at tonight's Playwright's Workshop 25th Anniversary Gala at the Centaur Theatre. With a price of $25 (partially tax-deductible) per person, the local play-development organization with a national scope is clearly aiming at an upscale crowd for their first-ever expensive splash. Kathleen Verdon, the Montreal Executive Council member responsible for cultural af community, etc. Although Radio McGill will provide an alternative to the bland, Middle-of-the- Road sounds that pollute the FM dial, Elrington emphasized that the new station would not become a soapbox for the McGill Flat Earth Society or pimply 18-year-old ideologues advocating forced collectivization of the Quebec poultry industry.

The station's statement of principles says Radio McGill "is not a vehicle for promoting religious or political ideologies. Therefore CKUT will not grant air time to those groups that it deems established and existing solely for the purpose of promoting such ideologies." This would appear to be prig-gishness above and beyond the call of duty. Any college newspaper or radio station worth a darn is going to challenge conventional wisdom and give free vent to outrageous opinions. Elrington says her current af-. fairs programs will tackle tough issues.

But the station will assure a balance of viewpoints. Hey, c'mon CKUT! If I want to hear everything on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-handed to death, I can New cartoon begins comeback for Daffy Duck EYE ON ENTERTAINMENT Family Stone, was arrested on drug and child-support charges as he was about to begin a concert. Stone, 43, whose real name is Sylvester Stewart, was in stable condition at a hospital jail ward this weekend. The singer was "totally incoherent" when he was arrested Thursday night in the lobby of Hollywood's Las Palmas Theatre on a child- support warrant, said district attorney's investigator Lieut. Bill Archer.

Stewart was also booked for investigation of possession and being under the influence of narcotics, Archer said. McGill station is except in Westmount BURBANK (AP) Yeth, folkth, Daffy Duck ith back, taking another quack at the big time at age 50. The cartoon fowl's first new short film in nearly 20 years, The Duxor-cist, will be playing in a few U.S. theatres this week, and should be running before movies across Canada and the U.S. early next year, says producer Steven Greene.

The seven-minute animated short, a send-up of horror films, stars the lisping, wisequacking duck as an exorcist who waddles to the rescue of a possessed female duck. Daffy first appeared 50 years ago, and his last new cartoon was re- TV RADIO Mike Boone compromising Marjolene Morin's ability to sell another few thousand records. Having survived the mini-controversy, Radio McGill is signing on with a signal that will be heard more clearly coming out of ghetto blasters at the corner of Pie IX and Jean-Talon than on Mcintosh receivers on upper Lansdowne. The situation may be all for the best. Westmounters, McGill class of '52, might lose their three-martini lunches and any inclination to suppert the alumni fund were they to tune in CKUT to hear the vocal stylings of the Butt-Hole Surfers.

CKUT is committed to playing alternative music. You won't hear much of the Surfers, Whitehouse, Big Black or DOA on any of Montreal's established FM stations. leased in 1968, Greene said. If Daffy is well received, Bugs Bunny and other familiar Warner Bros, cartoon personalities could return, Greene said. Singer in hospital faces drug charge LOS ANGELES (AP) Sly Stone, former lead singer for Sly and the on the air "There's a popular phrase around the station that we've adopted as our motto," says Elrington.

"We're 'Not Just Audio That means there will always be a context to what you hear. We're going to play music that comes from somewhere and says something." CKUT's music should provide relief from the playlists of FM rock stations, tunes that come from the Top 40 and say "Buy our album!" Whatever's neglected In addition to spinning pop and rock records that you don't hear on CHOM, Radio McGill will play jazz; opera, Latin music, reggae and whatever else the station decides is being neglected by mainstream radio, "You'll hear things that aren't played anywhere else," promises Gary Shapiro, the station's music director. "Our job is to give artists exposure. Whether they deserve it or not is almost secondary." Montreal bands will figure prominently on CKUT's playlists. And if a local group is still working the bar circuit and awaiting a recording contract, the new station will get out and tape them for broadcast.

CKUT calling itself "See-cut" is a non-profit radio station. It is staffed by 250 volunteers and financed by student fees and sales of advertising a licensed limit of four minutes per hour, but the station plans to sell only two to 2lh minutes of commercials. (There is no limit on the amount of advertising Canadian AM stations may broadcast. Commercial FM licensees may carry a maximum of 150 minutes of ads per day.) General manager Elrington, a native Nova Scotian who worked at the University of British Columbia's radio station, says CKUT will appeal to listeners "aged 10 to 70 and given the range of music we'll be playing, I don't think anyone will tune us in all the time." The new station will devote about 55 per cent of its broadcast day which runs 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.

to music. The rest of CKUT's programs will be spoken word: News, current affairs (using students and faculty of all Montreal post-secondary schools), original drama, issues of interest to the gay Montreal's FM radio dial gets a long overdue alternative voice this morning. CKUT-Radio McGill signs on for the first time at 7 a.m. The university station, granted a broadcasting licence last March, will be heard at the 90.3 frequency. Sue Elrington, station manager of CKUT and one of the non-profit station's four paid employees, says Radio, McGill's signal will be beamed off the transmitter atop Mount Royal and will come in clear as a bell everywhere in the city with a notable exception.

A bit tricky "The only place people might have a problem hearing us is West-mount," Elrington says. "Being in the shadow of the mountain is going to' make reception a bit tricky." There's delicious irony in this. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was pilloried unmercifully, the French press last spring for awarding a new radio licence to an anglophone university arid thus presumably dealing a death blow to Quebecois culture by.