Word: 20th
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...regularly produced symphonies, concertos, oratorios and an almost bewildering variety of choral works. For me, however, Stravinsky was at his most sublime when he wrote for the theater. There were operas, including The Rake's Progress, composed for a libretto by W.H. Auden and one of a handful of 20th century operas that have found a secure place in the repertory. The ballets also continued; the last of his masterpieces, Agon (composed for another Russian choreographer, George Balanchine), came...
...always willing to help out fellow musicians and passed out laxatives to royalty and heads of state. However well he was received in Europe, the large public celebrations with which West Africans welcomed him during a tour in the late '50s were far more appropriate for this sequoia of 20th century music...
...know why. Great melody has always deeply affected me, and Rodgers is possibly the 20th century's greatest tune writer. This is not to deny Hammerstein's enormous contribution. The simplicity of his lyrics is truly deceptive. Take People Will Say We're in Love. Thousands of songs, even well-known songs, make the few rhymes for "love" sound contrived. "Don't start collecting things--/ Give me my rose and my glove./ Sweetheart, they're suspecting things--/ People will say we're in love!" does no such thing...
...theatrical legacy cannot always be measured by such seemingly objective yardsticks. Though there is no film of Nijinsky dancing, no one questions his place of honor in the history of 20th century ballet. Even if her beleaguered company should someday close its doors and her dances cease to be performed, Graham will doubtless be remembered in much the same way, for the shadow she cast was fully as long. Did she invent modern dance? No, but she came to embody it, arrogantly and spectacularly--and, it appears, permanently. "When the legend becomes fact," said the newspaper editor in John Ford...
...dance floor. The other man was bulky, brooding, with the artistic mission to break things: codes of behavior, the very notion of "good acting." In their distinct ways--grace vs. power, gentility vs. menace, tux vs. torn T shirt--Fred Astaire and Marlon Brando represented the poles of 20th century popular culture. Astaire gave it class; Brando gave...