Daily News from New York, New York • 113

S3 43 Widows' is strong, goes on too long By DON NELSEN Altogether, an effective opening image to set the evening's somber tone. But the continuing story of the woman's banishment to a remote village, her subsequent involvement with two other women in a revolutionary army and their resolve to fight terror with terror is, while admirable politically, deadening theatrically. Much of the action, too, is melodramatic, which often renders the characters as cartoons rather than real persons Occasionally, a scene such as the women's parody of an interrogation with victim blindfolded and compelled to stand on a cinder block is done with a lean, slashing irony that momentarily arrests the imagination. But Vundla keeps heaping it on. His denunciations of white society, justified as they are, begin to lose their power after several voicings and become mere repetitions that hinder the play's movement "Widows" could be pared considerably without damaging the author's message.

It is difficult to assess the acting ranges of Victoria Howard, Pamela WIDOWS. Drama by Mfundl Vundla. Victoria Howard, Pamela Pooler, Tina Sattin. Set by Llewellyn Harrlmn; costumes by Judy Dearing; lights by Leo Gambacorta. Directed by Vantlle S.

Whitfield at the New Federal Theater, 444 Grand St. Mfundi Vundla's portrait of three South African women struggling against the menace of Apartheid" has all the elements of gripping drama: police interrogations, imprisonment, torture, forced removal from one home to another, separation of husbands, wives and children. But, aside from a stirring scene or two and flashes of intelligent acting, his piece is overwritten and repetitious, and directed at such a leaden pace that its hour and a half hangs heavy indeed. The first scene holds promise. A woman sits composing a letter to her husband, who presumably is in jail.

The sound of marching feet and slamming prison doors underscores her labors. She sits in ragamuffin clothes in a cutaway shack, thrown together with timbers and metal sheeting. Tina Sattin and Victoria Howard in "Widows" Poitier and Tina Sattin from a produc- long. The costumes, set and lighting tion such as this, where the playing contributed by Judy Dearing, to be stylized and dialogue is as Llewellyn Harrison and Leo Gambor-much declamation as conversation, ta, however, skillfully reflect the They do the job but the job lasts too theme and tone of the play. By BILL ZAKARIASEN The Metropolitan Opera's forced cancellation of "Fidelio" this season gave the opportunity for Swedish soprano Laila Andersson to make her debut Friday night in the title role of Richard Strauss' "Salome." Her voice is light-textured (her previous roles include Gilda and the Queen of the Night), but she was one Salome who ended a performance stronger than she began it Moreover, her spoiled-brat conception of the part was appropriate and superbly realized.

In a smaller house, she would have been magnificent, but even in the vast recesses of the Met Laila Andersson showed solid credentials. Julius Rudel, whose has previously conducted only the reduced orchestration at City Opera, led the big original with plenty of flair, while among newcomers, the barrel-toned Jochanaan of Siegmund Nims-gern and the Eve Ardenish Herodias of Gwynn Cornell were right in character. On Wednesday night, an outstanding two-year-old chamber orchestra, the Northwood Symphonette, made its New York debut in Avery Fisher HalL Orchestra-in-residence at the Northwood Institute in it presented a refreshing program eschewing the barococo bromides usually retreaded by chamber ensembles. Completely 20th century, the music included works of Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Villa-Lobos, Arnell, Foss and Ibert The highlight was Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras No. 1" in a highly successful expanded by Alexander Brott, in which the group was joined by Canadian Brass.

Less fortunate was the local premiere of Lukas Foss "Night Music," dedicated to John Lennon but worthy of the subject only 'Holy Terror': churchyard chiller By ERNEST LEOGRANDE HOLY TERROR. Paula She pea rd, Linda Miller. Directed Alfred Soe. At Loewt Astor Plaza, Loews SJd Sl A East. Running time: I hour, tl minutes.

Rated R. "Holy Terror" is being promoted as Brooke Shields' first movie. This is a teeny Brooke Shields. It was made four or five years ago she plays a nine-year-old and you have to watch her fast because she goes fast She plays Karen, a Catholic school girl preparing to make her first communion in Paterson, N.J., in 1961, but she's on screen only a short time before she's dispatched most ungraciously by someone in a high-gloss mask and a yellow hooded rain slicker. From there on the movie concentrates on Karen's 12-year-old sister, Alice, played by Paula Sheppard, who suffers from a sibling rivalry and is, as almost everyone from school principal to police psychiatrist agrees, weird and maybe nuts.

The girls' mother, Catherine, played by Linda Miller, leans heavily on the shoulders of a gentle-natured, good-looking parish priest, known familiarly as Father Tom, played by Rudolph Willrich, and her divorced and remarried husband, played by Niles McMaster, who has come home to help her through the crisis. The movie has qualities that take it out of the usual run of sanguinary homicidal horror movies, an attention given to dialogue, to authenticity of setting and to revelatory and atmospheric touches. For one thing the depiction of the strained relationship between the divorced couple, who still care for each other, is presented in a believable way. For another there is a hospital bedside scene in which the patient actually looks like a hospital patient, no small potatoes in the world of cinema. For its debit side the movie spreads around some ridiculous improbabilities and red herrings, such as the fact that yellow rain slickers keep showing up, even in fair weather, and unnecessarily emphasizes the obesity of a strange landlord who seems to have been cast in the hymn-like opening and closing sections the long middle one was merely pointless noise.

Conductor Rafael Kubelik saved the world premiere of one of his own compositions for the New York Philharmonic Thursday night, and it will be repeated in Avery Fisher Hail tomorrow at 7:30. "Orphikon" is a big, three-part work for full orchestra that makes some impressive, explosive sounds that impress the ear despite their lack of thematic profile. The new work is most decisively conductor's music full of wild orchestral colors Kubelik no doubt has always wanted to conduct if he ever got the chance. But like most conductors' music, one hears a lot of other composers (in this case running from Sibelius to Max Steiner) but no truly individual new voice. "Orphikon" seems a more notable work than his 1972 opera "Cornelia" (based on the life of Titian's mistress), but despite the frequently exciting ruckus, the over-all impression is faceless.

This fact was underlined by the concluding work on the program, Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, which basically has everything Kubelik's own music doesn't ideas, development, inspiration. But Kubelik, whose early 1950s recording of this work became a legend in its time, gave the work a magnificent performance, noted for expert control of rubato and superb orchestral playing. THE MEMORY OF the late tenor Richard Tucker will be celebrated tonight at 8 in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art "Richard Tucker, the Man and His Music'' wiii consist of film clips, recorded excerpts, television appearances and personal recollections by Rise Stevens, Robert Merrill and George Jellinek. Television items include two appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and part of "Aida" conducted by Arturo ToscaninL Together again The St Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra under David Randolph will give the U.S. premiere of Antonio Salierl's Mass in Major Friday at 8 in Carnegie Hall.

Also on the program will be the "Great" minor Mass of Salieri's rival, Mozart In addition, Peter Shaffer, author of the hit Broadway play "Amadeus," will be presented the St Cecilia Award for Merit for bringing the music of Mozart and Salleri to theatergoing audiences. The program will also be 'broadcast via station WNyc-FM. "2 ITIOHDAY Foofs. New play, opening night Eugene O'Neill Theater, 6:45 p.m. -Metropolitan Opera.

"La Traviata." Met Opera House, 8 p.m. Ensemble Instrumental de France. Carnegie Hall, 8 p.m. Joseph Smith. Piano.

Alica Tully Hall, 8 p.m. just for his physical.