Word: lutes
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...Lute, Flute, Lyre, and Sackbut is one of the least sophisticated shows ever put on at Harvard. And in a community where the standard fare is often overly scholastic and unduly pretentious, this might be viewed as welcome relief. But it should not be; there is a middle ground between boring everyone stiff and pandering to the least common denominator of intelligence that Lute, Flute has not found...
...spoiled brats that we are, we have come to expect more than a big ball of fluff when we see a show. Lute, Flute is a revue, of course, and it would be unfair to expect it to be fraught with meaning for our time. But as authors, Mr. Morey and Mr. Paul have consistently gone for the easy laugh. Somebody says "Barry Goldwater," and the audience breaks up, the way people used to at the mention of Brooklyn; and everybody feels great because he's in on the joke. But the situation is rarely exploited; brilliant ideas for scenes...
...Lute, Flute is not all bad. The opening number, "Lute, Flute, Lyre, and Sackbut," is the best piece of music in the show, and the second scene, a Harvard-Radcliffe dispute between Fran Blakeslee and Morey, contains some extremely clever lyrics. (Unfortunately, the next four scenes are the revue's worst.) The last scene in Act I--a spoof of Gordon Linden--and the three numbers at the end of the show are also successful. "Paradise Permanently Lost," in which an American an Italian, and a Swede try to make a movie out of Milton's work, is particularly fine...
...Madrigale afettuoso, a bit too obvious in intent to touch the modern listener properly, followed fine contrapuntal fun on simple scale practices. In spite of a cough, soprano Liliana Rossi filled Sanders with a beautifully clear tone, while the rest of the sextet took the part of a lute...
...Diaz began his program brilliantly with a series of 16th century lute transcriptions and played even more superbly with each succeeding selection. The effect of the 16th and 17th century music was enhanced by the drawing room atmosphere of Holmes' living room, the fine nuances of the guitar's tone are usually lost in large concert halls...