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Page Two SKYSCRAPER Audience Glowered La Traviata Smiled Back But Sang No Swan Songs When La Traviata was first produced in 1853, its immediate failure was due to obvious defects. It was performed in mod ern costume, the leading tenor was hoarse, and the soprano cast as Violetta was so dis- couragingly healthy-looking that, when it was announced in the last act that the heroine was dying from consumption, the audience howled with laughter. When the opera was presented a year later, suitably cast and costumed, it was an outstanding success, and it has been a favorite with opera lovers ever since. We are assured a much closer reproduc tion of the second opening than of the in itial performance when La Traviata is presented at the Civic Opera House on Nov. 13, by the New York City Opera company. To appreciate La Traviata properly one must consider the composer, Guissepi Ver di, a man of such outstanding talent that he was one of the few classical artists blessed with recognition and fame in his own lifetime. His creative genius was such that it demanded world-wide acclaim. Verdi was able to reproduce in song the drama the comedy of life because he lived his own life richly. The opera form was born in Verdi's na tive Italy at the end of the sixteenth cen tury. It gradually progressed and was ripe for the hands of the master when Ver di brought the Romantic period to a bril liant climax in the middle of the nine teenth century with his masterful works. His lyric gift and instinct for dramatic values infused Italian opera with a strong quality of realism, and restored the lost balance of music and plot. Conventional arias gave way to more melodic lines, and Verdi's welding of music and drama shaped the future of the opera for many years to come. His interpretation is per haps the largest single factor moulding the present day opera. Verdi is by far the most modern of operatic composers, and La Traviata demonstrates clearly the mus ical genius that made him a star in his own time. Come to Cotillion Part The Rainbow-Tinted Mist; Watch The Rain; What's There? AN ESTHETIC ESTIMATE: What is beauty? Is it found in a dictionary, a thesaurus, or around you? Is it found in fragments or always as a complete whole? Are the best specimens in shop windows? Is it seen in a tree etched in ice, heard in the joy of a chorused Gloria ? Is it revealed in a mathematics book, scented as an autumn bon fire points its grey finger skyward? Is it experienced in the silence of a deserted, dusk-filled chapel? Is it epitomized by a smile, clarified by a thank you ? , Could an idea hold beauty? Are symmetry and form found only within the walls of the Art Institute? Does the gray, furious lake ever shout its anger at you? SCORE: Never high enough. RECOMMENDATIONS: To realize that beauty cannot be confined between the cold covers of a dictionary, within the short span of a definition. The elasticity of beauty sends it bounding out of books into hearts, into the world. Look for it see it lurking behind a leaf, resting in the center of a flower. There it is wagging in a puppy's tail, shining in an old lady's eyes. Come to Cotillion Puppets Draw Human Parallel; Apostolic Work Awaits Writers With prank playing puppets, a few blocks, and deceptive masks, The Toymaker, a Stevens-Rose film, symbolizes the life-giving love bond that is the Mystical Body. Preceding the Barber of Seville, shown Oct. 3, this 15 minute col ored short, using two hand puppets, illustrates the common union of Christ's members with Him and with each other. Stripes and Spots, bound to the same puppet master, find that in hurting each other they always bring pain to themselves. Their per sonal quarrel brings them a moment of desolate abandonment, but the presence of the puppet master and his promise always to be there re assures them. The Toymaker, free of obvious moralizing and unique in its idea parallel and presentation, causes human puppets to contemplate their relationship to each other and the void that would be theirs with out their Puppet-Master. vln these days of articulated hate, such a movie as The Toymaker is refreshing and constructive. Scripts suitable for such pictures are in demand, according to Father Louis Gales of the St. Paul Parish Film service. Father Gales hopes that any Mundelein student who would like to work in the literary apostolate of such script writing will consult either him or Father Thomas Liske of St. Mary's parish, Evanston, for specific details about the project. What Qoes On . . BLOW . . . WIND, BLOW, BLOW WITHOUT ANY SUCH SPECIFIC directions, the wind has been doing just that. During the summer the lake sent us Junior Breeze, whom we welcomed with open arms and grateful hearts. Lately, however, she seems to have decided not to send a boy to do a man's job; hence, the re cent visit from Old Man Wind. To those of us who must round the windiest corner in this Windy City, that at the west walk, the blustery old man is no stranger. TO A FEW VIGOROUS ONES, HE PRESENTS A CHALLENGE, A BAT- tle for supremacy, a fight to the end. How ever, to less hardy souls he is a mortal enemy, one to avoid at all cost. Ah, but to accomplish this feat of avoid ance, one must be ingenious Some have developed the knack of getting a substan tial hold on the mail box and, readying them selves, race madly into his full attack, look ing neither to the left nor to the right, only to collapse in an exhausted heap at the west door. More have worked out another strat egy to out-wit the clever cyclone-maker. They wait impatiently until he stops to inhale, then sprint like gazelles to arrive triumphant, but breathless, on the doorstep. Lucky resident students on the thirteenth floor haven't this problem to contend with. They may be easily spotted, for they come to 9 a.m. classes looking fresh and rested in contrast to their commuting classmates who might easily pass for refugees from a hur ricane area. NO, THESE FORTUNATES DO NOT HAVE THE HAND-TO-HAND COM- bat with public enemy Mr. Wind that the plucky transients do; their torture is mental. On the upper floors, one can feel keenly the building sway back and forth with each gust. Will this skyscraper, so sturdy looking, crack and crumble under its windy barrage? We think not, but personally, we'll take our chances with the battle of the west walk. Come to Cotillion Freshman Test Come Prepared And Depart Unconquered The sun streamed through my Doric style windows. Sleepily, I awoke with Aristotle on the brain. I dressed hurriedly, brushing up on the fusion of Greek and Roman cul tures while I scrubbed my teeth. Reeling with facts, I traced the Greek conquests through my buttered toast, and drank my coffee to the echoes of Cretan sea kings. I grabbed my books, and, sprinting for the bus with Plato and Pythagoras panting on my heels, I managed to make acquaintance with Augustus Caesar and his friends. While hanging from a strap, pushed and shoved by a horde of barbarians, I felt a strong sympathy with the Christian martyrs. Finally, reaching school, I dragged myself to the lockers, and, with Euclid, the matha- metician, looking over my shoulder, strug gled with the combination which even he couldn't understand. With a last effort, I reached my first class, English. Then, the Huns struck, the empire col lapsed, catastrophe resulted. The test was in English; not History. Come to Cotillion Week Moments . . 1 p.m.. Senior Class meeting, Aud itorium Freshman Meetings with Counsel ors 3 p.m., Spanish club meeting, tea room p.m., Merchandising program, Home Economics department 1 p.m., Freshman Class meeting 3 p.m., Inter Racial Justice club. 405 p.m., Freshman Mixer, Social Room 2 p.m., NSA Staff meeting, Social room 1 p.m., Freshman lecture Straw Vote for President, spon sored by League of Women Vot ers 9 p.m., Sophomore Cotillion, Sher aton Hotel. Student View . . . Hope Crumbles As Egypt Slips Again Egypt, slipping from the pudgy, ringe fingers of King Farouk, has been caught i the firm grasp of Major General Mohamme Naguib. This modern coup d'etat, engineered b the Free Officers, holds all the attractic of a panacea for desolate Middle-Easten ers who dressed in rags while their liu ury loving king read American com: books. Naguib is not a sole strong-armed rulei behind him lurks the secret, nine-membs Free Officer committee. Naguib, chairma of the board, has, so far, succeeded in kee ing the diverse factions of the committf basically united and working toward the sarr goal an Egypt that holds hope for a classes. The initial burst of enthusiastic suppor however, has already begun to show fraye edges. Red labor disputes hammer roughl at crucial industries, while political ladde: climbers seek to trip Naguib. The land of the Suez canal and the ric Nile Delta has made its bid for Angli American aid. Britain and the U.S., bol Christian countries, move cautiously, fea: ing to offend dissenting factions while N; guib's hopeful promises begin to fade 1 fore a relentless reality that asks for coi crete proof. Come to Cotillion Halo Sparkles As Purcell Presents A Modern Joan -Mark Twain's Joan of Arc was respec fully elevating, Shaw's was admittedly pi tureque. but the 1952 rendition, HALO 0 THE SWORD by Mary Purcell, has tl simplicity and genuineness that make a real er feel companionable with the 19-year-ol girl. With Irish imagination, Miss Purcell hi captured in a refreshing manner the familii story of St. Joan, who appears as ma ern as 1952. There is no eulogizing lt; glorying in her virtue. The facts are there, as are the convens tions which make the reader believe wh the author presents without feeling that fro is a saint's story which is going to tell sora one to be a good girl. Oct. 14, Oct. 14, Oct. 15, 4 Oct. 16 3 Oct. 19, Oct. Oct. 21, 23 Uke gt;h Scraper Entered as Second Class Matter Nov. 30, 19J at the Post Office of Chicago, Illinois under E Act of March 3, 1879, 1.75 per year. Published semi-monthly from October to K; inclusive by the students of Mundelein Colfej 6363 Sheridan Road, Chicago 40. Vol. XXIII October 15, 1952 No. Oct. 24, C lt;KEditors Arlene GorJ Marion Whd Student View Donna MerJ Arlene Goi SAC Speaks Up Catherine Lai Patricia O'Bii Divertissements Marjorie Dti Sybil Lil What Goes On Rosemary J SP rts Mary Alice wj Skyscrapings Claire Hillyd Jane Roach, Gloria ValenB Assignment Editors Mary Lou Rohlfil Peggy Wins Reporters Barbara BrenJ Mary Carey, Dorothy Chiropolis, Rosemi Daly, Jo Anne Hickey, Dolores Kistt Lois Kolar, Catherine Lamb, Ruth McHiB Patricia O'Brien, Grace Pertell, Jane H telle, Dorothy Schneider, Virginia Allfl Loretta Casey, Barbara Gaul, Jean Kit Lorraine Quinn.
title:
1952-10-15 (2)
publisher:
Women and Leadership Archives http://www.luc.edu/wla
creator:
Mundelein College
description:
Student newspaper for Mundelein College
subject:
Newspapers
subject:
Religious communities--Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
subject:
Students
subject:
Universities and colleges
subject:
Women's education
relation:
Mundelein College Records
type:
Text
language:
English
rights:
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coverage:
Chicago, Illinois
coverage:
Mundelein College