KNAU update for March 29 — Arizona Opera This Sunday

We’ve had a strong start to the first week of Pledge Drive Lite! We are 62% to our overall fundraising goal of $110,000! With YOUR help, we can end the drive without interrupting programming. You’ve told us you appreciate the thoughtful news, entertaining programs and beautiful music KNAU brings you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Contribute NOW at KNAU.org or by calling 800-523-5628 and you’ll be doing your part to ensure that this programming continues for years come.

What happens when you assemble Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein in a room with a legal pad and some score paper? Why, Candide of course, their satirical 1956 adaptation of Voltair’s Enlightenment-era classic.

A young man falls in love but is immediately separated from the object of his affection. An unbelievable series of misfortunes befalls him in his struggle to reunite with his lover, while along the way he gains deep insight into human nature.

Composed at around the same time as West Side Story, Bernstein’s music and Sondheim’s lyrics paint a grand picture of optimism against a backdrop consisting of as much death and misery as any other opera you’d care to mention.

Join Classical KNAU Sunday afternoon at noon for this special broadcast of the Arizona Opera production of Candide.

For those who enjoy pleasantly poking around the Colorado Plateau, there’s an endless array of fascinating geologic curiosities. Among them are intriguing stones called Moqui marbles—brownish-black rocks, often roundish but with a variety of fanciful appendages, ranging from pea to grapefruit-size. Learn more at KNAU.org.

Arizona has the third highest number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in the U.S. A bill in the state legislature would commission a first-of-its kind study to show the causes and possible solutions to the epidemic. Learn more at KNAU.org.

A plan that outlines how seven states will deal with declining flows in a major river in the U.S. West is getting its first hearing in Congress. The drought contingency plan aims to keep two Colorado River reservoirs from crashing. Learn more at KNAU.org.

A federal grant program that provides college scholarships to Native American students could lose funding. This is the second year in a row the Trump administration has proposed defunding it. Learn more at KNAU.org.