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Show Entertainment Arts & O. C- - Tanner Gives Utah Another "Gift Of Music" partners. Accordingly, Von Stade was raised in affluence among what she has described as She tennis players and horsy types. attended private schools and thrived on such outdoor sports as bareback riding. Even as a child, Von Stade had a promising voice. She frequently dressed up and sang for what she calls patient audiences, but she never cared to take singing lessons. In high school she longed for a career on the Broadway musical comedy stage (Ethel Merman was her idol). She worked as a nanny in Paris while she was a teenager and when she saw Bizets Carmen there for the first time, she was more impressed with the horses they brought on in the second act than she was by the rest of the musical. After high school she was uncertain about her career goals and briefly sold stationery and greeting cards at Tiffanys in New York City. When a teenage friend bet her $50 at a party to try for a professional singing career, she auditioned for the Mannes College of Music. She was accepted, despite the fact that she had no opera training. After three years of musical training (financed by her parents) and an evening secretarial job, she entered the colleges opera workshop program only because it enabled her to graduate earlier. Once she started singing opera, she says, It was like within the music world buzzing. The concert will be taped by Decca London for later release on compact disc and cassette. The Saturday-evenin- g performance will be broadcast live over KBYU-F- by Calvin L. Harrington Forum staff writer A Gift of Music, featuring Mezzo-Sopran- o Frederica Von Stade, affectionately known around the world as Flicka andor Frederica the Great, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 8 and 9 in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Appearing with Von Stade will be theUtah Symphony and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The concert will be conducted by Maestro Joseph Silverstein. Not unlike Jessye Norman, who gave a one-nigconcert here a little over a month ago, Frederica Von Stade is one of the most highly marketable divas in the world. The mere fact that she is booked in Salt Lake City for two consecutive nights has many ht Frankie & Forum staff writer Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer star in Frankie and Johnny, a sometimes funny and tender story of a short-ordcook and a waitress who meet at a New York diner and begin an unlikely courtship. The comedy was produced and directed by Garry Marshall, director of Pretty Woman, and he describes the film as not a fairy tale but a realistic love story about love, loneliness, the whole human disex, lemma. Screenwriter Terrence McNally says of the film: As individuals, were getting more and more and more separate. I dont think its good to be able to say, I dontneed anybody. Theres still the yearning. This story is a celebration of people who follow the yearning and are willing to enter the joust once more. Johnny (Pacino) is a man fresh out of the penitentiary, and while he was there he learned there was something he loved to do: cook. He finds a job at the Apollo Diner and meets Frankie (Pfeiffer), a woman who has reached a point in her life which I think is true of many women her age where she doesnt want to live up to somebody elses image of the perfect woman, said Pfeiffer. er self-estee- m, self-sufficie- nt Anyone is welcome to attend a concert in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Admission is free to the general public, but tickets are required. Tickets are available at all Utah ZCMI stores, all Deseret Book stores, the Symphony Hall box office, or the North Visitors Center on Temple Square. Tickets to a concert featuring an artist of Von Stades stature are bound to be grabbed up very fast Not more than four tickets may be picked up by any one person in order to assure a wide distribution. Children under 8 will not be admitted. Regarded as a singers singer, Von Stade is noted for the numerous star studded audiences she has attracted in the countries where she has appeared. Reluctant to accept excessive praise when her colleagues rave over her performances she is noted for interrupting them and asking how their mothers are doing. Von Stade was bom in Somerville, New Jersey. Her mother is a descendant of Jonathan Trumbull, the colonial Governor of Connecticut. Her father was a United States Army lieutenant who was killed in Germany two months before his daughter was bom. Her family genealogy is an grandfainteresting one. Her great-grether was the mayor of Stade (a city near Hamburg, Germany). Her great grandfather was the first Von Stade to immigrate to America; he raced horses at Saratoga, New York in the century and married the daughterofoneofJ-P.Morgan- s at mid-nineteen- eating peanuts. I just couldnt stop. Critical praise followed her performances in college productions. She entered the Metropolitan Opera auditions and t. Rudolph Bing emerged a head the of Met) heard her and signed (then semi-finalis- th multaneously. She is universally admired for her friendliness, concern for others, lack of temper (a rarity among prima donnas), and her unStagehands at the Met pretentiousness. call her Fred (which means little girl in Swedish). She attributes the nickname of Flicka to her mothers desire to distinguish her from numerous other little girls named Frederica (some of her close relatives among them). Musical selections will include Old American Songs by Aaron Copland, Academic Festival Overture (Brahms), Ave Verum Corpus (Mozart), Song of Thanksgiving (Vaughan Williams) and . Schubert Ave Maria. There will also be excerpt from Madame Butterfly (Puccini), Solemn Vespers (Mozart), Songs of the Auvergne (Cantaloubc), Handels Messiah and Mendelssohns Elijah. Johnny: Bring Something To Keep You Awake by Benjamin Williams A1 M. her up. Most singers wait for what seems like an eternity to sing at the Met Ironically, Von Stade started off there. .Since her Met debut in the early 70s, Von Stade has gone on to perform with nearly every major opera house in the world, including La Scala in Milan, the Paris Opera, the Royal Opera Convent Garden in London, the Vienna Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera', the Santa Fe Opera, and many others. In addition, her appearances at the Festivals of Salzburg, Edinburgh, and Glyndcboume were all triumphs. Von Stade has received four Gramm nominations, and two of her crossover recordings of Show Boat and The Sound of Music once occupied the number one and two spots on the Billboard charts si- Johnny is hell bent to capture Frankies affections and will stop at nothing to get it, but when he tells Frankie he loves her, she retreats back into the security of her apartment and her VCR. This film is real 90s romance (living out someone elses fantasy in the privacy of your own home), but it over simplifies love and romance and turns those feelings into fear and desperation. Johnny becomes so desperate for love that his actions boarder on harassment. Executive Producer Alexandra Rose believes men as well as women will understand Frankies situation. Everyone has been hurt and disappointed in a relationship. Often people dont open up to love because theyre afraid ... theyre afraid the person is going to go away. Rose thinks it is common for most people to retreat and find something secure to fall back on. They person, I dont insist, Im a need anybody else. I dont want anybody else. Someone could hurt me and I'dont want to be hurt anymore. The film has its good moments, and if it is playing at the dollar movie go see it. Otherwise, dont waste your time or money on this yawner. There is a great character that makes this film almost bearable, though. Tim (Nathan Lane), is Frankies neighbor. Tim is a , homosexual who has relationship problems similar to Frankies. He has tried to find Mr. Right but has failed. Tim is not one to give up, however. His character is determined. Tim does not let the fears of life interfere with his determination. The difference between Tim and Frankie (other than the obvious) is Tim will not settle on being alone. He tries, and therefore is successful. Frankie is content to alone and is too afraid to even try to find love. Like previous picture couples, Frankie and Johnny characterize the society that inspired their invention. One of the ques tions posed by the film is the dilemma of what is better for an individual being alone or having a relationship that may not work out? Marshall said, When I first started in this comedy people said, Well, I guess you sit around and make all these jokes. And really we didn L You sit around and mostly remember pain and embarrassment and turn it into humor. You remember the pain and embarrassment and turn it into drama. Pain is a big part of life. On a scale from one to five, Frankie and Johnny is a two. A good two, but something that can be missed. , self-contain- ed Johnny (Al Pacino), a cook decides to win over the waitress Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer). ForumPage 9 |