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Arts & Entertainment
European folk music group to play Pershing
Touring students
living traditions
By Steve Pearson
Staff Reporter
The sights and sounds of Eastern Europe
will be brought to Pershing Auditorium tonight
when the Tamburitzans of Duquesne Univer
sity in Pittsburgh take the stage for a 7:30
performance.
The Tamburitzans’ show features the cul
tures of a dozen different countries.
“Our performance represents many of the
cultures of Eastern Europe, but we concentrate
on the Slavic countries,” said Pat Manfredo,
wardrobe supervisor for the Tamburitzans.
Manfredo said the performers sing in the
language of each culture they portray, play
traditional instruments, dance traditional dances
and are clothed in authentic folk costumes.
The group takes its name from the word
“tambra,” which describes the family of musi
cal instruments they play.
“The instruments of the family range from a
small instrument called a prim to a large instru
ment that looks like an upright string bass,”
Manfredo explained. “They use trumpets, clari
nets, accordions and violins, but their main
instruments are these string instruments of the
tambra family.”
This year marks the group’s 55th year of
performing and preserving Eastern European
folk culture.
“The group was started by a man up in the
Michigan-Wisconsin area who wanted to pre
serve the traditions of his heritage,” she said.
“It was around 1947 that it became affiliated
with Duquesne University.”
Manfredo said that students go through a
four-step audition process to get into the group.
After being accepted, they must apply for
undergraduate admission to Duquesne.
As members of the group, students take on a
grueling performance schedule, she said.
“They usually do 85 to 90 shows during the
school year, and they rehearse through a three
week training camp in July and August as well
as prior to performances.”
The performers also reap the rewards of
their time investment, Manfredo said.
“They get full tuition, room and board for
participating in the group. It’s like working
their way through school by performing,” she
said.
The Tamburitzans have toured extensively
in the United States as well as overseas. The
group has made extended tours of Yugoslavia,
Italy, Latin America, Romania, Poland, France,
Czechoslovakia, Greece, Bulgaria and the Soviet
Union.
This is the second performance in the Lin
coln Community Concerts Series. The series
continues March 31 with the Make Believe
Brass.
-—
Courtesy of the Walt Disney Company
A beautiful teenage girl named Belle meets a prince trapped in the body of a beast in the Walt Disney
Pictures’ production “Beauty and the Beast.”
Film fits adults, nephews
“Beauty and the
Beast"
By Mark Baldridge
Staff Reporter
Thanksgiving is coming and you
know what that means: family get
togethers — if you’re one of the for
tunate who still has a family.
A suggestion for when that baby
sister or that cute little nephew wants
to spend time with Bubba or Aunt
Ellen: “Beauty and the Beast” (East
Park 3, Cinema Twin).
This is a Walt Disney film like we
haven’t seen in a long time, too long.
The animation is excellent, maybe
unsurpassed. And surprisingly, there
are adult overtones. It’s a whole new
Wonderful World.
The story is a familiar one: Beast
meets Girl.
But of course there is magic, en
chantment. The Beast needs someone
to love, and who can love him, to
break the spell. Sigh. It’s romantic.
But it’s more than that, it’s extrava
gant.
There’s a little more violence than
Disney usually allows. There’s a little
blood, a little death and a little sex.
Don’t gel the wrong idea, “Beauty
and the Beast” is still a cartoon for
kids. It’s just that the college age
uncle or sister may be able to tolerate
it a little better than, say, “For the
Love of Benji.”
There are also some laughs. The
careful viewer will notice some
humorous details, little touches to
hold the interest of the adults. And the
nightclub review hosted by a candle
stick is hilarious in its lampooning of
the “big production number.”
The music isn’t quite as strong as
that in “The Little Mermaid,” but
then again, the story is stronger.
And this is the first Disney cartoon
of recent memory with a good-look
ing villain. The people at Disney seem
to think all bad people look bad. For
those of us who look a little villainous
ourselves, it’s nice to sec that change.
So, if you want to spend a little
time with that certain special (little)
someone, an afternoon with “Beauty
and the Beast” is a good way to do it.
And if you can’t borrow a kid to
take to see it, don’t be embarrassed.
Grown-ups can see it too. It’s OK,
really.
AIDS claims life of Queen’s lead singer
LONDON (AP) — Freddie
Mercury, whose rock group Queen
had hits such as “Bohemian Rhap
sody,” “Another One Bites the Dust”
and “We Are the Champions,” died
Sunday of AIDS. He was 45.
Only a day earlier, Mercury
?ndcd intense media speculation
about his health by issuing a statement
that he was stricken with the disease.
Mercury died at his home in Ken
sington of pneumonia brought on by
AIDS, said his spokeswoman, Roxy
Meade.
Bom Frederick Bulsara in Zanzibar,
the son of a government accountant,
Mercury rose to fame as the bravura
singer for Queen, whose elaborate
and occasionally bombastic songs
made the group one of the favorites of
the 1970s.
Mercury later released solo albums
such as “The Great Pretender,” which
also sold well.
Metallica to spend an evening in (Jmana
From Staff Reports
Heavy metal monsters Metal
lica will be in concert Wednesday
night at the Omaha Civic Audito
rium. The band is touring in sup
port of their fifth album, simply
titled “Metallica.” The LP, which en
tered the Billboard album chart at num
ber one, is the group’s follow-up to
1988’s double-platinum “And Justice
For All.”
Metallica is also making news on
their 1991 tour by allowing official
“bootlegging” of concerts. A 100
seat section has been designated for
both video and audio taping of the
show.
Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are
$17.75, available at the Civic Audito
rium Box Office, and all TicketMas
ter outlets.
Comedies brighten few
new videos for holidays
By Anne Steyer
Senior Reporter
New video picks are slim this
week and that’s especially disap
pointing since it’s a holiday week
end.
Of the three predominant re
leases, two arc of the lighter fare,
so they should work to relieve the
family ho-hums.
“Soapdish” (PG-13) This soap
opera within a soap opera is two
hours of sudsy fun and frolic, fea
turing an ensemble of Hollywood
stars.
Sally Field headlines as a forty
something daytime drama diva
whose producer (Robert Downey
Jr.) is planning to kill off her
character. Downey’s partner in
crime is Field’s jealous co-star Cathy
Moriarty.
Field’s problems arc com
pounded when Moriarty convinces
Downey to rehire Field’s former
on- and off-screen lover. Kevin
Kline is the former love interest
and current nemesis.
If this were not complicated
enough, Field’s niece decides to
plunge into soaps and finds herself
cast on her aunt’s show. Her love
life generates more than concern
from Field.
The subsequent twists and turns
border on the ridiculous, but, in
traditional soap opera fashion, are
carried off with flair.
Daytime drama devotees arc not
the only audience “Soapdish” will
entertain. Many of the jokes are
obvious enough to the general
public, and the frantic feel of the
film makes it especially enjoyable.
The acting is great, with special
kudos to Whoopi Goldberg as the
soap’s head writer. Kline also is
particularly good, especially with
hisrendilionofWillyLoman(from
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Sales
man”), performed for a group of
senior citizens.
Soap fans take note: Recent
Daytime Emmy award winners
make cameo appearances, includ
ing “General Hospital’s” Finola
Hughes and “Days of Our Lives”
Stephen Nichols. (Available tomor
“Only the Lonely” (PG-13)
Home video king John Candy re
turns, this time as a romantic cop.
Candy is Danny Muldoon, a
cuddly policeman whose mom
(Maureen O’Hara) is a monster.
Her constant interference in his
personal life threatens the first real
See SOAPDISH on 13
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■Courtesy of Blockbuster Video a aboard Magazine
David Baddara/DN