Countess

Maybe you've never heard of Dear World, Bristol Riverside Theatre's current production. Chances are, you know its source material, Jean Giraudoux's postwar dig at French war profiteers, The Madwoman of Chaillot. You undoubtedly know of its composer and lyricist, Jerry Herman, who, when the show opened in 1969, also had two other little musicals - Hello, Dolly! and Mame - running on Broadway. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, who wrote Mame's book along with Inherit the Wind, collaborated with Herman again on this show, and Angela Lansbury starred as Countess Aurelia.

Mary Bessborough, 98, of Center City, a native of Radnor who married a British aristocrat and later started the successful effort in London to preserve Benjamin Franklin's last existing home, died Saturday, April 13, at her home. Lady Bessborough raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the restoration of Franklin's London residence. In the 1950s she learned about the house at 36 Craven St. in London when her husband showed her a plaque marking Franklin's residence. Over the years, the home had been damaged and fallen into disrepair.

The scenario went this way: An AIDS-like fatal illness was ravaging members of the most elite group in society. The only way to cure the disease was to bring doctors from society's less-privileged classes into the group - and risk ending the group's elite status. This was the challenge: whether the elite group would overcome its own prejudices to save its members' lives - or whether it would expel the sick members of the group, and risk having them spread the disease to other groups.

All during this week, a car ferry filled with 659 Palestinian refugees, half of them children, was stranded off Cyprus because no country would take them in. This news item summons up memories of World War II Jewish refugee ships banned from entering Palestine. But in this case, the refugees are unwelcome in the ports of brother Arabs, as well as in Israel. If you think this news sounds peculiar, given ongoing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, you are right. But the story of the hapless Countess M ferry underscores one of the biggest - and least publicized - problems still blocking a full Mideast peace.

Countess Catherine Merrick Wielopolski, 88, a member of one of Philadelphia's most prominent families, died Wednesday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Mrs. Wielopolski, who lived in the Fairmount section of the city, was the youngest daughter of John Vaughan Merrick Jr., a longtime teacher at Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. Her great-grandfather Samuel Vaughan Merrick helped establish the Franklin Institute and was the first president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1946, she married Count Alfred Wielopolski, a Polish soldier and nobleman who was educated at the court of the last czar of Russia.

Richard Robbins, 71, the composer who created memorable scores for such films as A Room With a View , Howards End , and The Remains of the Day during a quarter-century collaboration with director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, died Nov. 7 in Rhinebeck, N.Y., of Parkinson's disease, said Michael Schell, his longtime partner. Mr. Robbins created the score for nearly every Merchant-Ivory film from The Europeans in 1979 to The White Countess in 2005. He earned back-to-back Academy Award nominations in 1992 and 1993 for his original music for Merchant-Ivory productions.

Lisa Della Casa, 93, who swept up crowds at opera houses of the last century with an elegant and radiant style that established her as one of the finest sopranos of her generation, died Monday in the northern Swiss town of Muensterlingen. After more than 400 performances at the Vienna State Opera, where her interpretations of many great roles, particularly those from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss, won her wide acclaim and appreciation, Ms. Della Casa left the opera world in 1974, apparently weary of the music business.

They've run the Breeders' Cup 14 times now, 98 races in all. Giant money has been won and lost. Wonderful stories have been developed, told and retold. What never changes are the horses and the people who love them. Saturday at Hollywood Park, center stage was crowded with three horses and two families - an older horse and two young horses, an older family without children and a young family with an 8-year-old daughter. After six of the seven races were in the books, trainer Patrick Byrne, his wife Jill and daughter Devon were on center stage by themselves.

Much of what the Academy of Vocal Arts stages in its tiny Helen Corning Warden Theater must be approached "Germanically": You look past the compromised surfaces for the central, underlying idea. Circumstances demand it. Just because grand opera doesn't fit there doesn't mean this finishing school for young singers shies away from staging Strauss' Elektra, which will come later this season. And just because AVA is nicely endowed from a scholarship standpoint doesn't mean the costumes are going to fit and be flattering.

MOZART'S "THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO," presented by Opera Company of Philadelphia. Performances at 8 tonight and Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 17 and 24, and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 14 and 21. Academy of Music, Broad and Locust streets. Tickets: $20-$135. Info: 215-893-1999. PUCCINI'S "MADAMA BUTTERFLY," presented by Academy of Vocal Arts. Performances at 8 tomorrow night, Nov. 16, 20, and 23 at 1920 Spruce St., and 8 p.m. Nov. 26 at Centennial Hall, Haverford School, 450 W. Lancaster Ave., Haverford.