Word: dourness
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When Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten's dour saga of a doomed fisherman, was first produced at the Metropolitan Opera in 1948, one patron was so outraged that he spat through the box-office window. Badly sung, unimaginatively staged, poorly conducted, the opera sank with barely a ripple...
Some 1,800 fans of the grand old opera gathered at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria for a celebration of his 65th birthday. "There are many virtues in growing old," General Manager Rudolf Bing told the members of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. After a dour pause, he added: "I'm just trying to think what they...
...Baden-Württemberg, Kiesinger proved to be a popular, effective Minister-President. A gracious host and, like most Swabians, a lover of wine, he soon turned Stuttgart into a far more sparkling city than the dour federal capital of Bonn. He built schools, roads, hospitals, and opened a brand-new university. Says Kiesinger: "I wanted to show Bonn that I could govern." At the same time, he enjoyed the life of a country squire. In the more relaxed world of provincial politics, Kiesinger had time for hikes through the Black Forest, for evenings with his family, and for his books...
...conventional explanation DFL-ers gave for jettisoning Rolvaag was his "bad image." The governor unquestionably appears dour, remote, and uninspiring to the public. His face looks terrible on television, and he is a nervous public speaker who mumbles choppy, barely coherent answers when grilled on panel shows...
...looked as if Khrushchev's successors may have at last told Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to get off and hitch up. With the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. already moving toward the conclusion of a New York-to-Moscow air pact and an outer-space treaty, the habitually dour Gromyko astounded newsmen by emerging from a State Department dinner with the observation that "both countries are striving to reach agreement" on measures to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons...