ENDACOTT SOCIETY
July/August 2005
Retired Faculty and Staff of the
University of Kansas www.ku.edu/~emeritus
SCHEDULED EVENTS—July/August 2005
All activities meet at the Adams
Alumni Center unless otherwise noted.
Dear Endacott Society members,
At the close of my term as President of the Endacott Society, I would like to thank each of you for making this a really special year in our history. My thanks go to those who maintained an active membership for your participation is what keeps the Endacott Society viable.
A special thanks goes to the chairs of our interest groups. The interest groups provide opportunities for our members to participate in activities that are most meaningful to them. Without the continued dedication of our chairs, our interest groups would cease to exist.
Speaking of interest groups, when I tell prospective members that we are approaching 40 interest groups they are amazed. I truly believe that these groups are a major factor in making the Endacott Society so great.
A review of our annual reports shows that this year was special. I hope each of you has read the annual reports and share my views on this matter. And I have every expectation that the Endacott Society will continue to thrive and be one of the truly special opportunities for those of us who have retired from University service.
Thank you again for allowing me to serve as President of the Endacott Society this year. This was a wonderful experience for me.
Sincerely,
W. Max Lucas, President
Afternoon Lecture Series—Megan Schoeck (mschoeck@sunflower.com & 841-6008), Roberta Spires (rspires@ku.edu & 842-6820) and Howard O'Connor (843-1884)
July 14—Paul Carttar, Executive Vice-Chancellor for University
Relations, will discuss plans and directions.
August 11— Kay Kent, Direrctor of Douglas County & Lawrence
Department of Health and Environment, will discuss the problems of managing a
large health organization on a tight budget. For example, how does one deal
with a shortage of flue immunizations and what is the forercast for supply.
Bill Hambleton (wwhamble@ku.edu & 843-2508), Tom Eblen (teblen@sunflower.com & 865-3634),
& Jerry Niebaum (niebaum@ku.edu & 842-3127) are in charge of programs for the Afternoon Lecture Series.
Card and Game Theory—Ruth Culvahouse (jwcul@ku.edu & 842-0626)
Card and Game Theory will indeed meet this summer in response to popular demand. The meetings will be July 21 and August 18 at 1:30 pm in the Paul Adams Lounge. Any questions should be referred to Ruth Culvahouse.
Cinema Studies—Grant Goodman
(plim@ku.edu & 841-1066) and Fred
Madaus (fmadaus@ku.edu & 841-4939)
July 19—“Waiting for Guffman,” a hilarious comedy
August 16—The inimitable Tallulah Bankhead in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat.”
Coffee service starts at 1:45. Everyone is welcome!
Drama Study Group—Arnold Weiss
(ahweiss@ku.edu & 842-5502)
With a near-capacity crowd in attendance, Drama Study Group
made a solid—and impressively accomplished—start on its reading of August
Wilson's The Piano Lesson. With
almost exactly a third of the work now read, it would seem likely that The Piano Lesson will be the vehicle at the Group's next two sessions. It
certainly will be at its forthcoming one, to be held on Friday, July 8, at 1:30 P.M. in the Music Room.
Let no one be deterred by "near-capacity" (see above): there will
always be space for newcomers or returnees; plenty of copies of the play are
available; and the opportunities for flexing thespian muscle are practically
limitless—as those present in June discovered. Come join
them!
Evening Lecture Series—Tom Eblen (teblen@sunflower.com & 865-3634) & Sue Nishikawa (nish@ku.edu & 842-6165)
On August 4—wine, cheese, and bread at 5:30; potluck at 6; speech at
7. The speaker will be Sen. Derek Schmidt of Independence, the Senate majority
leader. No telling what he might have to say, but I promise that it will be
interesting. Schmidt was editor of the UDK in fall 1990. In addition to his
journalism degree from KU, he has a law degree from Georgetown, which he earned
while working full-time for Sen. Nancy Kassebaum.
Program Chair: Tom Eblen (teblen@sunflower.com &
865-3634)
Foreign Policy Study—Margo Gordon
(msgordon@ku.edu & 842-1848)
The July meeting will be July ll at 3:30. Topic:
Outsourcing Jobs: U.S. Dilemma.
Dale Rummer is in charge of the
program. Plan to come. No meeting in
August!
Gardening—Arno Knapper (knapper@ku.edu & 312-9422) and Dick Shiefelbusch (843 5869)
July 6,
13, 20, 27 and August 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 at 9:00
Great Books Study Group—Art Lamb (arthurlamb@sbcglobal.net &
749-4647)
Great
Books will not meet in July or August. In September Jim Taylor will lead
the discussion of The Schooner Flight
by poet Derrek Walcott.
Library—Phyllis and Dick Sapp
(rpsaff@ku.edu & 842-0013)
The
Library Committee is pleased to announce the donation of the book SELECTED SPEECHES by William W. Hambleton.
The book is published by the K.U. Geological Survey and was donated by
the Survey and Bill Hambleton.
Music—Arno Knapper (knapper@ku.edu & 312-9422)
July 6,
13, 20, 27 and August 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 —immediately following
Coffee.
Opera Study—Jim Seaver (jseaver@ku.edu
& 843-4081) & Al Sellen (jnalsellen@aol.com
& 841-7432)
This year we will be studying the operas of Richard Strauss: Friday 19 August 2005 Salome and Elektra; Friday 21 October 2005 Der Rosenkavalier; and on Friday 20
January 2006, Ariadne auf Naxos; and
a Friday in March 2006, Die Frau ohne Schatten. All operas will
start at 1:00 P.M.
Composer and conductor Richard Strauss (1864-1949), was born at Munich,
where his father was the leading horn player in the Munich Opera
Orchestra. Exceptionally precocious, like Mozart, Richard was given piano
lessons when he was four and began composition when he was six. While studying
music with August Tombo and Benno Walter, Strauss received his academic
education at the University of Munich. He began his conducting career as the
assistant of Hans von Bulow, and, aided by Alexander Ritter, Strauss was
converted to a Wagnerite and began to write the tone poems "Don Juan"
and "Death and Transfiguration," which made him famous in the period
1890 to 1900. His first opera, Guntram
(1894), a very Wagnerian
work, was a failure, and his second, produced in 1901, Fuersnot, was also poorly received.
For his third opera, Strauss decided to
set a French play by Oscar Wilde which is based on passages in the New
Testament, Matthew XIV and Mark VI, where Salome's name is not even mentioned.
The girl is simply called the daughter of Herodias, wife of Herod Antipas, who
urged her daughter to ask Herod for the head of John the Baptist on a silver
charger. This subject had already been used by Massenet for his highly
successful opera Herodiade;
but when Strauss's Salome was first performed at Dresden on 9 December 1905, it created a
sensation—praised that a new form of opera had arrived; but also hated and
reviled that such an immoral and scandalous work could be staged. Salome made Strauss almost overnight one of the most controversial and highly
publicized figures in music. Our video of Salome comes from a
performance at Berlin in 1990, conducted by Giusepppe Sinopoli and starring
soprano Catherine Maffitano as Salome, with Leonie Rysanek as Herodias, and
Simon Estes as John the Baptist. The performance is a vivid depiction of
teen-age lust and was barred from many stages around the world, but now it is
revered as arguably Strauss's masterpiece. (The opera lasts one and one-half
hours.)
Salome
was followed in 1909 by Elektra, which has a libretto by the Austrian poet and dramatist Hugo von
Hofmannstahl, with whom Strauss collaborated until Hofmannstahl's death in
1929. The opera is based on the ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles. The action
takes place in southern Greece at Mycenae about 1270 B.C., ten years after the
fall of Troy. King Agamemnon and his wife, Clytemnestra, had four
children—Orestes, Elektra, Chrysothemis, and Iphigenia, who had been sacrificed
to the gods at the start of the Trojan War. Clytemnestra never forgave
Agamemnon for this. When, after ten years at Troy, he returned victorious from
the war, Clytemnestra and her paramour, Aegisthis, killed Agamemnon and set up
their own rule over Mycenae. Orestes escaped the new rulers, but Elektra, who
hated her mother, and her timid sister Chrysothemis lived on in the palace
under the tyrants. Elektra, living in squalor, hopes that Orestes is still
alive and will return so they can avenge Agamemnon's death. When Orestes does
return, at first Elektra does not recognize him; but when she does, a great
scene of loving recognition occurs. As the opera ends, Orestes slays the two
usurpers, but Elektra, dancing for joy, falls dead—the moment of triumph too
powerful for her. Our cast for Elektra
is a great one: it includes Birgit
Nilsson as Elektra, Mignon Dunn as Clytemnestra, Leonie Rysenek, as
Chrysothemis, and Donald MacIntyre as Orestes. The opera was taped at the
Metropolitan Opera in 1981, James Levine conducting. It lasts for two hours.
Coffee, tea, and cookies will be served
at the intermission between the two operas. The music will last for about three
and one-half hours. Both videos have English subtitles.
Ten O'clock Scholars AKA Wednesday Coffee/Business Meeting—Margery Lamb (marjlamb@sbcglobal.net &
749-4647)
July 6, 13, 20, 27 and August 3, 10, 17, 24,
31
Coming
Attractions
*Armchair Travel with resume on
September 22 with a program on South America. Stitt Robinson (wsrobin@ku.edu & 843-1499)
*Out of Town Travel—Ev Swartz (evswartz@ku.edu & 841-4065)
Friday, September 16— Manhattan and Topeka,
Kansas
Itinerary will include:
Manhattan:
Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art—Special Exhibit: "All in a Day's Work—Farming and
Ranching in Kansas.” Paintings will
include works by John Stuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood. Topeka: Brown
vs. Topeka Board of Education National Historic Site & Ward-Meade Park
"Old Prairie Town."
FYI:
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obtained from Bryan Greve at the KU Alumni Association. We will no longer
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