Word: backed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week Pavarotti was back at the San Francisco Opera, starring in the season's opening production, Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda. Once more there was drama and tumult. Profound tremors again swept through the house. But the intervening decade had made an enormous difference. This time Pavarotti himself was the earthquake...
...Pavarotti, reaching a top note brings on a mystical feeling such as a champion high-jumper might experience. "That second when you clear the bar in mid-air you lose consciousness," he says. "It is something physical, animal, beyond control. A moment later you are back on the ground and in full control." The haunting, universal fear that some day he will jump and miss?"that I shall open my mouth and no sound will come out" ?gives Pavarotti the whim-whams before every performance. In 1972 he made a transatlantic call to Beverly Sills about their upcoming appearance...
...balance between his voice and the orchestra. "Why do 1 sound as if I'm singing in another room?" he shouted after hearing a playback. When the producer defended the balance, Pavarotti slammed his score shut and stomped out of the studio. But the next day he was back to try again. "Luciano is not temperamental," says one recording executive. "But he has a tendency to push things to see what he can gain. If he fails, he will back down...
...more retired people. In 1950 the worker-to-retiree ratio was 7.5 to 1; to day it is 5.4 to 1. By 2030, when the baby boomers will be rocking away on the veranda, the ratio will be 3.1 to 1. Under Social Security, payments from current workers back the checks that are sent to former employees. There are now three workers paying into the system for every retired person who is drawing out from it; in about 50 years there will be only two workers for every retiree...
...many industries will have to face up to the changing pension demographics that automakers have already encountered. While in 1970 there were seven current auto workers for every retired one, the ratio now is 3 to 1 and will be 2 to 1 by 1990. Masterful union negotiators, going back to legendary President Walter Reuther, have won their employees some of the best pensions in private industry. This year the union fought for another breakthrough that would tie pension benefits to the cost of living, a plum common to public employees but still almost unknown in the private sector...