Climb every mountain: Play the sound of music at the University of Finland | News, sports, jobs
The opening began when everyone on stage stood in a circle for the traditional “Break a leg” encouragement. It was something I had learned while working at Red School House, a school for Indian Indian students in St. Paul.
I had asked “Why do we gather in a circle for our school meetings?”
Porky, the eldest of the tribe, said to me: “It’s because in a circle we’re all equally close to downtown.”
I reminded the Actors again, as I had done so often during rehearsals, that we were all equally important. As an example, I reminded you that if the person who opens and closes the curtain does not perform his or her task at the beginning of the performance, it is not. We were all stars and our ultimate success depended on each of us giving our best. I reminded them where we had started and where we were that night now. We held each other’s hands and said our individual prayers for a short moment, praying for each other and ourselves, and then it was show time! We had a story to tell and songs.
Earl Gagnon, a journalist for the Daily Mining Gazette, had become my friend. His enthusiasm for production was contagious. The free publicity we received from The Gazette exceeded our expectations. Sometimes in life you encounter someone and commit immediately. Earl and I tied up. One thing that attracted me to him was his unique and original writing style. Not everyone admired him. Rumor has it that English composition professors used his articles in the Gazette at some nearby universities as an example of how not to write. They told their students “Earl can take a five-word sentence and change it into a 50-word Novell”.
His vocabulary was as colorful as it was endless; and when I say he was “Yooper Shakespeare” I mean it in the most loving way.
As a tribute and a deep sense of love and friendship, the following are some of my late friends (he died in 1981) “Daily Mining Magazine” descriptive comments on the performance (They are a small sample “Many long” articles.):
“The whole show was so free that at the moment it would be impossible to pick a fault. The fact that Lama and the company have gained a reputation that can hardly be surpassed was evidenced by the long applause that arrived at 11 a.m., almost at the end of the show. The changes in the scene were so rapid that they were barely noticeable. Then, as is associated with having musical continuity throughout the program in only one interval, it is difficult to describe correctly. The audience was so confused that it left the theater with respect and inspiration as if leaving the cathedral after prayer.
Paula Gustafson and Kent Carlson are students who play the lead role and Captain Von Trapp. Both have voices related to display version leads. As a reminder, the film’s production was considered so delightful that it is still running, in fact, forward to the heights reached by Gone With The Wind. Paula’s voice is delightfully fascinating and Kent’s voice features all aspects of the cinema that was the father of these interesting Von Trapp children.
Maria, the future nun of the Nunberg monastery, was almost unique in her lead role, the main composer of the exhibition. Her youthful emotional and engaging voice is a useful filling for Julie Andrew, who stood out so well in the film’s performance.
As one viewer said, “Lama and his whole company made a really great and brilliant performance.”
Captain George Von Trapp (Carlson) interpreted his part as he sang “Edelweiss” tears of emotion flowed through the audience.
All the friends of the music cinema remember the monastery’s mother Superior, where Maria lived for some time. In the performance of the famous Finland College “Sound” it’s a Philadelphia girl who plays the role of a supervisor. Linda Perry has a wonderful voice, one from Philly, a city of Quakers.
Children (on average, childless couples may want to adopt a full nine) were captive from oldest to youngest.
The nun’s choir was exceptional and there were performances in both English and Latin. The latter offerings of the dead languages were music that was greatly appreciated because they brought back the early romance that was characteristic of the surrender of the Church’s Latin language to recent nationalist tendencies.
The whole performance was an excellent merit to Director Lamain, who is not a newcomer to such offers. A recent series of similar successes in Grand Rapids, MI, the showman wore many hats, a professional organist, arranger, scene inspirer and singing maestro. Once he went behind the scenes to steer. At least this was observed in the parquet parquet, the front of which proved him to be a fresh organist. Ed Golub as a drummer and Judy Riipa as a pianist. It was the latter three-part orchestra that provided melodic continuity that interrupted the entire three-hour program.
“FINNISH COLLEGE PRODUCTION IS”Exceptional ”.
Earl Gagnon, “Daily Mining Magazine”.
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The production received applause after each performance. All Actors were identified during numerous veil invitations. We really had “Climbed the mountain and had waded every creek” and together we found “our dreams”.
Somehow we all knew that the giants of the past were in the audience and had given their approval.
PS Many years later I had the exciting privilege of bringing Woodbury Singers to Mondsee, Austria. We sang a concert, standing on the very stairs that Maria (Julie Andrews) had climbed during the wedding photography in “The Sound of Music” to meet with Captain von Trapp.
It is, after all, a small world.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Gerrit Lamain is a former Copper Country resident who worked as a music professor at Suomi College. He was also an organist on the Michigan Tech hockey team before moving to the Minnesota North Stars.