Word: europeanization
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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HARVARD OFFICIALS announced last week that West German President Richard von Weizsacker will be the principal speaker at this year's Commencement Exercises. In picking the figurehead leader of a European nation to deliver the prestigious address, the University for the second year in a row chose a speaker relatively unknown in the United States. Unfortunately, last year's speaker--Lord Carrington, the head of NATO--lived up to his modest pre-billing by delivering a longwinded and sparsely attended address. There is every reason to hope, however, that this year will be different. The selection of President von Weizsacker...
Those who live among the wild animals may be excused if they sometimes do not share the American's or the European's mystical enthusiasm for the beasts. Farmers like the Kikuyu, the Embu and the Meru regard the wild animals as dangerous and destructive nuisances. Crop-raiding baboons are esteemed among African farmers about as highly as the coyote is admired among West Texas ranchers. They are considered vermin. Elephants passing through a Kikuyu shamba (small farm) one night can wipe out a farmer's profit for a year. The law forbids killing them. If the elephants and giraffes...
Rossignol, France's premier ski manufacturer, has traditionally been the undisputed king of the slopes. From Jean-Claude Killy to Erika Hess, European stars have slalomed to championships on Rossignol skis. Last season the French company sold 1.9 million pairs, giving it 25% of the $800 million world ski market...
Most of this experimental activity takes place in Europe; what Old World audiences find adventurous, American operagoers often consider brazen. Protective of the cultural talismans bequeathed by distant European forefathers, Americans tend to mistrust radical interpretations. Europeans, more at ease with their own heritage, feel freer to experiment with it. Those seeking a bold approach in the U.S. will rarely find it in the big houses. In New York City, the Metropolitan Opera favors conservative productions, sometimes elephantine ones like Franco Zeffirelli's La Boheme and Tosca, that reinforce the company's role as a musical museum. Occasionally, the rival...
...possible interpretations. Innovation, even if it is not always completely successful, keeps the art fresh; and in any case, those who claim that the real drama in opera is found in the singing can have no reasonable objection to new stagings. American companies would benefit from a jolt of European bravado. It is not a sign of degeneracy but of vitality...