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Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is a medley of the sounds of war. Cannons roar, bells chime, whistles and trumpets pierce the muffled drumbeat. Seeking superrealism in his interpretation, Atlanta Symphony Conductor Robert Shaw installed 16 electronically controlled explosive devices to simulate cannons in the pit. Last week, before a crowd of 1,500, he pressed a button on the conductor's stand on cue, and a smoky, skull-splitting blast filled the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center. That triggered a smoke-sensitive automatic fire alarm. In minutes, 25 eager firemen charged into the auditorium, axes and hoses at the ready. While a dazed audience watched helplessly, the firemen made for the smoke-filled pit and came within a split second of dousing both crowd and orchestra. Shaw admitted to confusion. "As the smoke cleared and firemen in full asbestos regalia appeared, it became apparent that what I had mistaken in the din of battle as a premature entry of chimes was the smell-all, tell-all alarm that did not know its brass from the principal bass."
"I work only according to God's directions," explained Uganda's mercurial leader General Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada, who has added film making to his myriad activities. A transfixed TV audience in England last week saw Big Daddy explain the necessity of killing 3 spies, guerrillas and Israelis, give a detailed demonstration of military tactics, and dress down his Foreign Minister, —who, notes the commentator dryly, turned up dead in the Nile two weeks later. To those new to Big Daddy, French Director Barbet Schroeder's Autoportrait seemed to be an African rendering of Titus Andronicus. For three weeks last whiter, Schroeder and his crew tried to capture Big Daddy on film. Amin himself planned and supervised each day's shooting, improvising enthusiastically to illustrate his ideas. By turns charming and cruel, shrewd and funny, Amin credits his popularity to his sincerity. "I always speak the truth," he said. Already a hit in Paris, Autoportrait, which opens in two London cinemas this week, includes a homey note. Posing with seven of his 18 children, the general chortles: "I'm a very good marksman."
The shade of fiery Eva Peron must have winced. Touring Europe on behalf of her ailing husband, Argentina's President Juan Peron, 78, Isabelita, 44, made it clear that she was not trying to usurp his role. In Rome, Eva's successor gave a 55-minute speech defining the feminine ideal with a kicker worthy of Gertrude Stein: "Women have to be and feel no more than what they are and no less than what they must be."