Special Opera Night At UB to Honor Honorary Degree Recipientry Degree

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A performance of two, one-act, Gian Carlo Mennoti operas will be presented by the Greater Buffalo Opera Company at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22, in the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus as a special UB sesquicentennial event honoring Franklyn G. Knox, M.D., Ph.D.

Knox, a noted kidney researcher at the Mayo Clinic and Foundation who received a joint medical-doctoral degree from UB in 1965, will receive an honorary doctor of science degree from UB at 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21.

The opera performance is being sponsored by the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The operas to be presented are "The Medium" and "The Old Maid and the Thief," one a tragedy, the other a comedy. Gary Burgess, director of the Greater Buffalo Opera Company and a UB associate professor of music, said he chose these operas because they deal with abuse of one kind or another, the consequences of which the healing profession faces daily.

"The Medium" deals with a woman caught between reality and the supernatural, while "The Old Maid and the Thief" is concerned with the process of aging.

All tickets for the opera performance are $20, or $8 for students, and may be purchased by mail from the Greater Buffalo Opera Company or in person at the Center for the Arts box office. A cast party and champagne reception in the north end of the atrium will follow the performance. Tickets for the reception are $10.