News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 57

lit Playgoers, the 'Bus' stops here with Charlotte Players rendition6D 'Camelot' commands super effort, but director meets challenge7D Datebook2D Abby11D Movies14D NEWS-PRESS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1985 i r.v- Guest conductor looking to extend invite permanently The suspense and anticipation -j. I. continues unabated for audiences vX, at Southwest Florida Symphony 1 i uixnesirapenormances. UlCf ThP pann'c cprnnri cmpct rnn- I IflUOlU I 1 ductor. Paul Robinson, will lead I CRITIC i GALE BENNETT -a 1 i The Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra will perform Saturday at 8 p.m.

at Cape Coral High School, 2309 Santa Barbara Blvd and again Monday at 8 p.m. at Barron Collier High School, SS90 Cougar Drive, Naples. Both concerts will be led by guest conductor Paul Robinson and feature guest violinist Sherry Kloss. Tickets for both concerts may be purchased at the door the nights of the performances and are $8, $8 and $18 at Cape Coral, tit at Barron Collier; students are half price. For additional Information, or ticket reservations, call the symphony offices at 334-3258 in Fort Myers, 281-2518 in Naples.

i. GARTH FRANCISNews-Press Classic antique Cord cars parked in front of the Gordon Klodt residence accentuate its appearance for the Holiday Home Tour. Royal Palm Garden Club uses annual Holiday Home Tour proceeds to plant seeds of continuing Lee County beauty hi it the orchestra in their next subscription concerts Saturday night at Cape Coral High School and Monday night at Barron Collier High School, Naples. Robinson is one of three finalists selected last summer by the Orchestra Association's search committee for the position of permanent conductor and music director of the local ensemble, beginning next year. A few weeks ago Robert Gerle the first of the three guest conductors to appear led the orchestra in a sparkling, memora-ble performance.

Maestro Gerle's credentials were extensive and impressive, and the same holds true in the case of Robinson. A native of Toronto, Canada, Robinson has for the last 12 years been the Music Director of CJ3RT-FM, a non-commercial educational radio station in Toronto and music director and conductor of the CJRT Radio Orchestra, an ensemble made up of the best free-lance musicians from around the Toronto area. Before this, he taught music and philosophy at the Universtiy of Hong Kong and the State University of New York at Fredonia. In Hong Kong, Robinson was also conductor of the Victoria Chamber Symphony. Another indication of Robinson's credentials is found on a recently released recording of the Hayden Cello Concertos on the Fanfare label featuring soloist Ofra Harnoy, with Robinson conducting.

The recording received an outstanding review in Ovation magazine, a highly respected national publication devoted to the world of classical music. Robinson is internationally known as an author and musicologist, primarily through the publication of his series of books, "The Art of the Conductor," which to date includes four books one each on Georg Solti, Leopold Stokowskl, Herbert Von Kara-jan, and Leonard Berstein. Robinson's book on Solti, of which I have a copy, Indicate Robinson's thorough understanding of proper interpretation of the works of the great composers and a fearless critical appraisal of the famous conductors in question. In addition to the English edition, these books have been translated into Russian, Japanese and German. Besides his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto, Robinson studied double bass with Frederick Zimmermann of the New The Royal Palm Garden Club Holiday Home Tour will be held Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.

at The Forest. Tickets are $5 and maybe purchased In advance from McLaughlin's Garden City Nurseries or from club members the day of the tour. For details, call 481-8SS9. By PRUDY TAYLOR BOARD Special to the News-Press If you love beautifully decorated homes, you can give yourself an inexpensive pre-Christmas present this Sunday a $5 ticket to the annual Royal Palm Garden Club Holiday Home Tour. In addition, you may pick up some tips for accessorizing your home for Christmas.

Royal Palm's members are decorating the homes with holiday flower arrangements, table centerpieces, Christmas trees and wreaths that could inspire you. Another plus from this early gift to yourself is that ticket proceeds from the tour are used to help beautify Lee County. The Forest, a development of custom homes i Just as the Klodt home is basically eclectic in design, so is the Maddoxes. An intriguing feature of the Maddox home is a bedroom done in red and black. The walls are black with the draperies and bedspread black embellished with large red flowers.

The Stilson home is very modern. In the dining room, the Stilsons have used a Japanese ceremonial robe as a wall hanging to set the design theme. Ungurean's home is done in traditional colors blues, peaches and white but the focal point in this home is the waterfall in the front hall. Tour Chairman Sybil McLaughlin says proceeds from this year's tour will go to several projects. At Michigan Elementary School, the Royal Palm Garden Club will buy four large Coco plumo-sas and three large water oaks as part of that school's beautification project.

And the club will also get the children involved. Students from Lee Tech will actually plant the trees, but the Garden Club members will take seeds and soil to the Michigan Elementary students. This spring, the children will transplant the flowers they've grown from seed to gardens around the trees. Additionally, the club will distribute copies of "A Teacher's Guide to the Conservation of People and Their Environment," a textbook by the national Council of State Garden Clubs, to the teachers. The Garden Club will also continue its practice of donating money to the Save The Palms project, designed to help feed and maintain the area's Royal Palms especially those along McGregor Boulevard and Highway 80.

Another portion of the funds raised by the home tour will be donated to the restoration of the Burroughs Home and Four-Mile Cove Eco Park in Cape Coral. Last year, the Royal Palm Garden Club donated $500 toward construction of a nature building in Eco Park. carpeting Rare Find is the pattern, Rice Tones the color creates a sense of unity, trailing as it does throughout the living and guest rooms and master bedrooms. Highlights in this section of the home include a beautifully upholstered headboard In the master bedroom (Vilardi did the upholstery; the fabric is Schumacher's aqua pattern). The den Is an interesting room as Klodt had the chocolate-and-silver paper specially made.

The paper on one wall has an Art Deco design Incorporating automobiles; the other walls are covered with the same paper, but in a geometric design. A prized possession prominently displayed is a color photograph of the designer of the Cord with a personal inscription to Klodt. In the guest room, the pattern of the wallpaper, which is also picked up in the bedspreads, is especially nice. It's Avignon Spring Green by Unique and it lends a bright, cheerful note. Throughout the house are scattered Klodt's treasures.

One of the most interesting is the Atwa-ter Kent radio in the Informal dining area off the great room. Klodt says the radio, which has been restored and retains all of its original materials and parts, is so powerful that in the evenings, he can pick up transmissions from as far away as Moscow. But Klodt's home also Is noteworthy for the many paintings he has collected. The paintings range from pastel nudes to seascapes and landscapes; to clownsand Indian heads. Paul Robinson conducts the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra this weekend.

York Philharmonic and received his diploma in conducting from the Salzburg Mozarteum, where he studied with Bruno Maderna. He also holds a master's degree iri the Aesthetics of Music. Both distinguished and impose ing in appearance, this musician proved to be also warm and quite down-to-earth in an interview earlier this week. Like Robert Gerle before him, Robinson made it clear that he would be delighted to make Fort Myers his permanent residence and our local orchestra his "full-time preoccupation." "Frankly, after all those years with CJRT in Toronto, I'm restless; it's time for a change," Rob-See BENNETT, page 3D tucked among thick stands of pines, oaks, melaleu-cas and carefully preserved native grasses and palmettos, Is again the site for the tour. It's easily accessible off U.S.

41, and signs on the right-hand Side of the highway point the way. Included on the tour are the homes of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Stilson at 16937 Timberlakes Drive, Mr. and Mrs.

William Maddox at 16620 Bobcat Circle, Carl Ungurean at 16668 Bobcat Circle and Gordon Klodt at 16962 Timberlakes Drive. The Klodt home of fers a bonus as antique Cord automobiles will be on display as well. His home alone is worth the trip. It's Interesting not only because it's tastefully decorated, but also because it's obvious that Klodt did not turn his home over to an interior designer, but worked with one to realize his ideas. In fact, Lorraine Ryan of Brown's Interiors, the designer, emphasizes that Klodt had very definite ideas of what he wanted and that independence of thought is evident.

The living room is expectedly elegant. The Now that's art entertainment! Johnson goes visual 4D ART CRITIC MARY FAULKNER FRIDAY As one looks at the 67 prints, drawings and paintings in the exhibit, one can see the progression of Johnson as a collector. He acquired his first art while on duty with the U.S. Army in Europe in 1965. It is a powerfully sensitive, small, line etching, "Self-Portrait with Hand on Forehead," by German master Kaethe Koll witz.

Another early work is Ida Kohlmeyer's mixed-media-on-canvas painting, "Veiled No. 2," an almost minimal painting but one with a haunting sense of quietude. At first glance it looks like two rectangles on a white field gray and blue on white canvas. But as one continues to look, one sees the many subtle colors in the center of the work emerge. Jim Dine, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg.

James Rosensquist, Wayne Thiebaud and Cy Twombly are some of the See FAULKNER, page 5D Come to the reception tonight and you'll see the finest collection of contemporary art ever to be shown in Southwest Florida, "Selections from the Leif Johnson Collection 1965-1985," at the Edison Community College Fine Art Gallery. The collection includes not only internationally known artists' works but prints from artists who are just beginning to acquire fame. Johnson's most recent acquisition is a 1962 etching by French master, George Braque. Helen Getler of the Getleraper Gallery, New York City, describes this print in the show's catalogue as an "exquisite print 'Oiseau Blanc Sur Fond Rouge' This recent addition enhances and broadens the scope of the collection. Indeed, the Brasque functions as the quintessential piece it is strong, beautiful and tough." It is tough because its value becomes greater with time.

The "Selections from the Leif Johnson Collection 1965-1985" is on display at the Edison Community College Gallery of Fine Art, Saturday through Dec. 19 and Jan. 7-Feb. 14. Gallery hours Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.

to 4 p.m.; Thursday, 5 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Opening reception tonight, 7-10 p.m. image is a silhouette of a white bird, one of the symbols for which Braque was known.

It is surrounded by a brilliant red-orange cloud that's all. It is essential proof that "less is more." Music, dance fill mall If shopping has struck a sour note with you, the Edison Mall hopes to change your tune this weekend. The Grandma Band of Lehigh Acres performs at 1 p.m. today with the Caloosa River doggers hoofing it at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, the First Christian Church Puppet Show starts at 1 1 a.m., followed by the Fancy Dancers at 2 p.m.

and the Lehigh Acres Barbershoppers at 4 p.m. Accent on Dance takes center stage Sunday at 2 p.m. GARTH FRANCISNews-Press Leif Johnson unveils his art treasures at ECC tonight. Have ball at 'Cinderella' Cinderella, her wicked stepfamily and, of Singing Nuns used to habit of hearing same skeptical songs course, her prince, will present their story tonight and tomorrow at 8. The Edison Players will perform the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, "Cinderella," in the By MICHAEL ERICKSON News-Press Staff Writer auditorium of Fort Myers High School.

Tickets are $6 for adults, $5 for children and students and are available from Edison Players members, at the door or by keep their performance free of missionary overtones. "People often think our singing will be meaningful only to Catholics, but it is really just a pleasant variety of traditional songs that anyone can enjoy. We don't preach. But we do hope that the audience will see that we are happy. That is the most inspiring message we can deliver." The Singing Nuns, members of the Religious Congregation of Mary, Immaculate Queen, will perform Sunday at the Exhibi- See NUNS, page 3D indignant lady huffed, "What they won't do to sell wine." The nuns were more amused than offended by that verbal stone.

"She thought we were from Blue Nun wine," says Sister Mary Bernadette. "Little children usually point at us and say, 'What's To older people, we are a shock. And people handling backstage arrangements at the halls where we perform often call to ask how many trunks we are bringing with our costumes. "We wear our costumes. All the time." The Singing Nuns, all 1 6 of them, are real.

Full-time nuns, part-time singers. "You'll find the sisters are something pulled out of the 1950s," says Sister Bernadette, their director, explaining why children are prone to stare and demand explanations. "We still wear our full habits. Even though we are doing something very untradi-tional like singing, we are trying to maintain the traditional spirit of cloistered religious life." Despite their blue habits and the image such attire implies, the sisters are careful to reservation. Call 936-2107.

It's goodbye, 'Dolly' Tout lemonde est unenonne. Nuns have always been targets of understanding. The French thought they had it with their above expression: "Everybody is a nun." A couple in San Diego thought they understood when they encountered the Singing Nuns preparing to perform at a quaint seaside mall. Intending to be overheard, the It will be a fond farewell to the Royal Palm Players' production of Dolly" See WEEKENcCnext page.