Word: droits
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...shift in mood: Figaro is not straight comedy, which The Barber certainly is. Instead, it is a fairly cynical look at marriage (the four-years-later episode of Count Almaviva and Rosina's romance), the master-servant relationship (the Count repays Figaro's first act help by demanding the droit du signeur of Figaro's bride), all made more complicated than necessary by intrigues and mishaps. The cast manages generally to overcome the mood-change by keeping the tone as lighthearted as possible and by stressing funny one-liners ("his pockets were full of persuasive arguments," is offered...
According to Chesler and Goodman, "Touching' is one way of signifying power: economic power in general and sexual power, the droit du seigneur." While this may sound overly ominous, men, whether they like the role of aggressor or not, seem to touch more readily. The boss can wrap a paternal arm around a female's shoulder without seeming too forward. If she returned the gesture, the scene would become an embarrassment or a joke; only by this reversal would its essential presumptuousness or plain silliness come out. A woman who acts this way might be tagged a flirt--a demeaning...
...contrary, the French are miserable and inhibited in their lovemaking, according to the recently published La Réalité Sexuelle (375 pages; Laffont; $8). Roger-Pol Droit, 25, and Antoine Gallien, 27, have gathered together 22 vivid tape-recorded interviews from people of different ages and backgrounds-but with similar complaints. "I never thought marriage involved sexual relations," confessed a 42-year-old Marseilles secretary. "She'd always say the same thing: 'I'm going to end up pregnant,' " complained her husband. A 36-year-old librarian from Dieppe said that she had accepted...
...seem to think that there is some theatrical merit to da Ponti's book; if the libretto indeed has any function, it is as a bad example. Even Neil Simon would blush at the plot, the story of a newlywed bridegroom trying to keep his lecherous employer from exercising droit de seigneur...
...compared to the lust inspired in him by a winsome peasant girl, Rosemary Forsyth. He needs her, he explains, as he needs bread, sunshine, fire in winter. Honor. Well, blast honor. He claims the lass on the very day of her marriage to a husky serf, invoking the ancient droit du seigneur whereby a nobleman may claim ''the right of the first night" with any bride in his domain. The local priest (Maurice Evans) fusses a bit, suggesting that he choose another virgin, but his lordship will have none of them...