Word: ascent
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Billy Joel, in his ascent to unrivaled commercial success, never made us dance. In fact, as he carved out his comfy pop niche, he never made us do or feel much of anything. But on Piano Man, The Stranger and 52nd Street he described just enough familiar American experiences with enough pleasing, if not arresting music. We bought his albums and made him popular...
...gold curtain rises on Verdi's La Forza del Destino at the Metropolitan Opera this season, it does more than unveil the first act set: it also reveals a bright new star in rapid ascent. As Leonora, Soprano Leona Mitchell, 34, sings with smoldering intensity. Each performance mingles sweet lyricism with raw-edged emotion that brings audiences to their feet, shouting bravas and tossing bouquets. From a dutiful but passionate daughter to the pathetic, penitent recluse at the end of the opera, Mitchell recalls Leontyne Price in the quality and dramatic power of her performance...
DIED. Maria Jeritza, 94, soprano golden girl of opera's golden age; in Orange, N.J. Combining a radiant voice with flamboyant acting, the Austrian-born singer began her ascent to stardom in 1912, when the Emperor Franz Josef invited her to join the Vienna Royal Opera. At the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang from 1921 to 1932, the director reported that the largest ovation he had ever heard followed her "Vissi d'arte, "the great second-act aria in Tosca; she sang it prostrate on the floor. A tempestuous diva onstage and off, Jeritza gathered three husbands, prompted...
Charley is No. 5 in the hierarchy, and there is seemingly nothing to block his ascent-until he falls heel over head in love with a semigorgeous broad named Irene Walker. To the hulking bachelor hoodlum, she is "a classic, like the Truman win over Dewey." Irene is not Sicilian, but a Pole from Los Angeles who is semimarried to a Jew; she is also a freelance assassin who has shot one man for the Prizzis and, on the side, scammed them for $360 ($360? The other 000 is always omitted in family conversation, supposedly "to confuse the tourists"). Novelist...
...engines, they taxied out to take off. Pettit was at the controls. "Slushy runway. Do you want me to do anything special for it or just go for it?" he asked. Wheaton: "Unless you got anything special you'd like to do." Pettit then described his planned ascent maneuvers, with the final, jesting caveat, "depending on how scared...