Word: bravura
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...lines are more pleasing than the script's. Her body is an erotic spoof spelling sex in quotes, as she overtilts a wayward hip or dislocates an amorous shoulder; in marathon-long dances, the stage is her keyboard, and she never hits a wrong note. Under the bravura assurance lies an endearing Chaplinesque poignance. Smiles of delight cross the wistful, wide-eyed Verdon face, like sudden dawns. Eager to please, she seems perpetually astonished at her power to give pleasure, as if the double-take she often uses were her own second nature. More fun to be with than...
...craftsmen reached their greatest peak as they learned to twist glass into all manner of sizes and shapes. At its best, as in the dragon stem goblet (opposite), the Venetian artists managed to capture the same excitement in movement and space that held Tinoretto entranced. This Venetian love of bravura effects reached a flamboyant finale just before the development of heavy potash glass in Germany and lead glass in England broke Venice's near monopoly. Glass blowers made wine goblets in the forms of whole ships, gondolas, pyramids, belfries, tubs, whales and lions. With such excesses, Venice...
...River City knows that it has trouble all right, and the audience knows that Bob Preston is the hottest performer on Broadway. Gliding tirelessly through scene after scene, he sings in an unpretentious, mellow baritone, turns Seventy-Six Trombones into as rapturous a piece of high-stepping bravura as ever brought down a house. His portrayal of a likable cad is a fine job of acting, but he does more than act and sing. He kicks a mean one-step, dances the Castle Walk. And in an inspired number that has already made Choreographer Onna White a big name...
Unexpected Tensions. Pianist Richter's technical mastery is so complete that he makes audiences forget about technique. With his enormous hands, he can play tenths and simultaneously thirds between thumb and forefinger. His bravura passages are majestic with no hint of pounding, his pianissimos a wonder of velvety control. His flexible rhythm gives even the most familiar music unexpected tensions. As he plays, his faunlike face registers emotion like a mass of exposed nerve ends, winces in a spasm of pain when he hits one of his rare wrong notes...
...Concerto No. 3. The conception in both was sweeping, the technique so sure that he rippled off the Rachmaninoff without cuts and with the finger-cracking cadenza that the pianist-composer himself chose not to play. Despite a few nervous smashes in the opening Tchaikovsky, he played with such bravura and nuance that the audience paid him the rare tribute of thunderous applause between movements. After both concertos, as he rushed to embrace Conductor Kondrashin, he won shouting, standing ovations-and a deep-throated roar when he finally sat down to his encores : Rachmaninoff's Etude Tableau, the finale...