Word: 20th
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...list of the great 20th century operas would have to start with Puccini's Turandot and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, which summed up, respectively, the Italian and German romantic traditions. It would also include Debussy's Petteas et Melisande, the French composer's 1902 masterpiece of Gallic allusion and understatement; Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, the most important work to enter the international repertory since World War II; and Alban Berg's twin monuments - Wozzeck, the seminal opera of our time, and Lulu, the apotheosis of the twelve-tone system...
...Katerina and Sergei in Act I, called the music "pornophony." But the opera proved popular, with 83 performances in Leningrad and 97 in Moscow before it offended the delicate sensibilities of the Soviet commissars, who denounced it in Pravda as "Muddle Instead of Music." Shostakovich, the only important 20th century Russian composer who worked entirely under the Soviet system (Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky eventually settled in America, and Prokofiev spent many years abroad), found himself labeled an "enemy of the people" and for a while even feared for his life. It took him more than a year to restore his reputation...
...mood and contrasts of the Fowles book without clumsily injecting a modern narrator. The choice of Pinter was well-made, for he transforms the book-within-a-book into a film-within-a-film with a minimum of messiness. His screenplay respects the intent of the original novel, whose 20th-century structure of author's conceits and devices framed a haunting story of 19th-century romance and passion. By telling the Victorian story, then weaving a parallel story around the romance of the actors making the film. Pinter achieves something of the same sense. The 20th century doesn't just...
Humans worldwide in 20th century ravage periphery while repudiating great centralities of consciousness! Henry Ratliff...
...monument to the disgraced former president. Nixon deserves no museum and no shrine--and certainly no opening ceremonies celebrating his legacy. But no one should underestimate the importance and value of his presidential papers. Nixon, for better or (more likely) for worse, was a major political figure of the 20th century and his presidency remains an important factor in all our lives. Historians, journalists and interested citizens of the present and future will find his papers invaluable for understanding the use and abuse of power. We can learn from the post-mortem how better to treat the disease...