OPERA PREMIERE
The American Center for Puccini Studies will present a unique double bill this weekend: on Saturday night there will be a free staged reading of David Belasco's "The Girl of the Golden West" and on Sunday afternoon Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" will be sung in concert version. Both will be at First Christian Church, 2723 King St., the reading at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the opera at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Puccini himself declared that La Fanciulla was the greatest opera he had ever written. Set in the Gold Rush of 1849, it was written for Enrico Caruso and produced by David Belasco in a premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1910.
Kay Krekow, soprano, Harry Dunstan, tenor, and Bryan Jackson, baritone, will perform the opera. Krekow and Dunstan were heard here at the Martin Luther King Memorial Service in January, when they absolutely stunned the audience.
Tickets may be purchased at the door for $15, and libretti will be available. This will be the Washington Metropolitan Area premiere of the work.
HAF GARDEN PARTY
"I never eat before this party — the food is so good!" confided our neighbor Ruth Kaye, historian, at the HAF garden party which moved indoors because of rain; Elizabeth Hooff surely must deserve some sort of medal for gallantry for allowing the transfer.
Ruth was particularly pleased because two of the houses which received plaques were ones for which she had researched and written house histories.
GOLFING BROTHERS
Ellen Pickering's two sons, Duff and David, came to town last week to play in the St. Anselm's Golf Tournament, one from Florida, the other from Encenitas California. They come every year to raise money for scholarship funds at their alma mater.
This year they came in second, losing by only one hole to another team.
LACROSSE STAR
Liz Downs, granddaughter of our neighbor Mary Lamois, has been declared the #3 player in girls lacrosse in the USA.
She is on the national under-19 team,was placed on the Allmet lacross team, and is going to UVA on an athletic scholarship to play lacrosse. Her sister Mary is playing lacrosse at Berkeley.
"Anne and I have decided that athletic talent skips a generation,' says father Hal Downs. "Their grandfather, Loyd Lamois, was an NCAA track champion at Minnesota, and my mother was athletic."
— Lois Kelso Hunt