European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 28, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Gazing politics and Art mix in 87 the year was filled with cultural events thai reflected the warming of International relations. The opera Nixon in China which debuted in Houston in october reminded . Audiences at an earlier cultural thaw. Nyji Heintz associated press in events As diff use As Tho opera Nixon inching arid  Gorbachev s Duel with Van Clibur a. Politics and inc arts managed to harmonize in 1987 the cultural age in was tilled Wilh events thai reflected the warming of International relations the soviet Union s  program May have been id subject of much debate Ghoul its political ramifications bul ils effect on Trie arts was unambiguous. Audiences in other countries meanwhile were beguiled by ethic ils of  and modern mastors Al Greco Goya and Matisse in Paris Paul Klee in Bern and a Long a wailers now permanent Selling for Joseph m w Turner s works in London in the performing arts. Inc Tare ranged from London s musical hits to scathing social commentary plays in South Africa to the mahabharata. Which Drew crowds in los Angeles and new York despite ils 11-hour running irme and esoteric subject matter an adaptation of the world s longest poem for those who could i gel enough of an Belgium May have been the Best place to be. Wilh its country wide three month euro Palm festival that brought events to 45 cities. The soviet state controlled Art establishment brought Back to Light Arliss and works that had been scorned for decades soviets got to see the country s Lisl full scale exhibits of inc exuberant hallucinatory paintings o native son Marc Chagall and the abstract paintings of Vasily Kandinsky and other 1920s Avail Gardiss were shown in Lenin id and Moscow lot the firs time in More than f,0 year. In literature Anatoly Rybakov s novel about the stalinist Era. Children of Trio areal surfaced from underground in a Ueary journal and plans were made or publishing other works the soviets once had condemned As dangerous or morally repugnant including the poems of 1987 Nobel literature Prie laureate Joseph of Brodsky but the symbolic Peak of the soviets cultural year May have occurred in Washington. Where Cliburn came out of retirement to play Lor Gorbachev at a while House reception during inc superpower Summit. Soviet television broadcast Gorbachev singing a Ballad with Cliburn who was an Early Harbinger of cultural warming when he enthralled soviet m the first Tchaikovsky Competition 29 years ago in new York however there was a reminder of inc soviet Union s uneasiness about artists when pianist Vladimir Felts an gave his first Western performance Al Carnegie Hall Felts nun. Who is jewish had fought for a decade to emigrate while his career came to a standstill in his Homeland. Elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Inc israeli philharmonic s first performances in Hungary and Poland prompted ecstatic ovations some lasting 15 Mirilos conductor 2ubin Mehta said emotions ran just As Strong Wilh the musicians Many of whose families had lied those countries alter world War ii. Hungary also got a look Al Iho soviet Avant Garde show Victor Vasarhely whose paintings prefigured of Art during a Long exile in Franco was present in Budapest Lor Tho opening of a museum devoted exclusively to his work. Relations Between East and West Berlin remained uncomfortable but both sides of the divided cily staged lavish celeb rations to Mark the City s 750lh anniversary and its one Lime pre Eminence in Tho arts. The West s Celebration included three nights of pop music played so close to the Wall that East Berlin youths rioted when police prevented them from coming closer to the communist banter. South Africa saw some artistic ventures that challenged and lambasted ils apartheid system of racial separation including the country s first performance of Othello with a Black Man John Kani playing the Moor. The musical District six was the hit of the season attracting multiracial so crowds in Cape town for its spirited bitter Story about a mixed race neighbourhood thai was razed after the area was declared to be Whites  authorities recently announced they la Lake an even More Liberal step by allowing Iho movie cry Freedom to be shown the film depicts the Latoi Days of Steven Biko a Black activist who died in police custody and a Whit e journalist who now is a banned Poison in South Africa for All the signs of increasing openness Rohlic South african novelist Nadine Gordimer was not encouraged her latest novel a sport in nature Stag gels that Only those whom the authorities do not Lake seriously can escape apartheid s rules. Chilean novelist Isabel Allende also Offe cd a Bleak political Panorama in her of lavs and shadows which also was translated into English the novel Cen leis on the discovery of a Cache of bodies of people slam m the political upheaval of the late 1970s  audiences meanwhile were reminded of an Oai l e r cultural thaw with the debut of the opera Niton in our by american composer John Adams critics pronounced it exceptional for ils balanced and humane epic Hon of world leaders and said Peter sellars1 startling staging including an air plane Landing on stage Lor ence raid not Battle or alienate the audience the London Heater even Llagun cd its iolent by turning follies into a hit despite the fact that americans ignored it when it premiered on its Homo ground years ago Britain also provided american in unexpectedly successful piece of serious theater m breaking Lite code a dense difficult play Boul cryptographer Alan Turing by Conti Asl. China s cultural events were markedly subdued compared Wilh other years the Campaign against Bourgeois liberalism following a Leiden demonstrations appeared to have discouraged or tills from breaking new ground and one of the loj events of the year was inc staging of Tho american musical Warhol so Tho music Man in the musical theater British productions retained their uncanny ability to Enchant the lost of the world los miserable look Broadway Washington and Tokyo by storm and prepared for openings in More Ihnn a Dozon Woidt capitals ranging from Buenos Aires to Reykjavik Starlight express Drew sell out crowds who apparently did t pay heed Lohec Fichs scaling reviews and pan Nom of the opera was poised Al year s end to become another trans Atlantic smash Tho Pfay with monologues about mathematics and logic requires the kind of attention and understanding that Allan Bloom said was disappearing his Book the closing of the american mind surprised publisher and author Alae when they found customers lining up to read his sour discussion of How television and pop music have pummelled americans into a cultural stupor the Book recommended that people rediscover the classics for which there was plenty of Opportunity including iwo grandiose stagings of Verdi s Aida in Egypt one in a 3.400-year-old Temple Al Luxor and the other in a vast stage at the fool of the pyramids at Giza both performances were billed As the cultural event o inc Century " other events that Drew huge crowds to Iho classics included France s largest comprehensive exhibit of Spanish Art and a huge retrospective of Jan Honore Fragonard s Leafy romantic paintings in London 136 years of wrangling ended when a museum devoted to j m w tumor s i kill colourful paintings finally opened Turner Riad willed i works and his Fortune to the stale but his Dute to Sunlloa-nrs1 in Maich .1 record  lasted until an unidentified buyer paid $53 9 million or Van Gurth s in Jos Highl months in Ltd the Mojo eur i in Rosundo. Argon lira a mrm a a Toul paintings values the  Way when thieves Side an assortment of can vases including onus by Goya and Al Greco total estimated loss was Al Lel i.12 million monday. December 2b. 1987 the stars and stripes Paga 13