Word: french
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...evening’s plucky all-Ravel program featured four works by the 20th-century French composer. It got off to an energetic start with “Alborada del gracioso,” a brief selection whose title suggests the early morning serenade of a jester. The performance took full advantage of Ravel’s Impressionistic score, leaping into noisy climaxes and slipping suddenly into murky, bass-dominated string arrangements. Spirited castanets set off the piece’s Iberian influences, and a patient bassoon solo broke through the enthusiastic cacophony of metrical shifts and rhythmic switches...
Since June, Spanish authorities (in concerted action with French counterparts across the border) have scaled up their antiterrorist operations and moved aggressively against ETA and Batasuna. Earlier this week, Spanish authorities arrested two other Batasuna leaders. Arnaldo Otegi, the group's main spokesperson was jailed on June 8 to serve a 15-month sentence for participating in a tribute to an ETA activist killed in 1978 by a fascist paramilitary group...
...midst of this bleak news - and as Sarkozy was in the U.S. thrilling observers with a speech to the United Nations on September 25 - French Prime Minister François Fillon described the nation's financial and economic state as "bankrupt", and indicated serious belt-tightening would be required to address the situation. Fillon soon regretted the public concern the term provoked: as Sarkozy returned from New York with assurances that "there are no austerity plans" for France, Fillon found himself obliged to explain his use of "bankrupt" as glib and non-literal. A French public groggy with weeks...
...international affairs - all things that produce big headlines, but whose real impact are hard to measure. And with economic worries now overtaking that earlier buzz, I think it's fair to say Sarkozy has failed in his biggest early goal: creating a shock wave of confidence convincing the French that things are moving in the right direction and getting better quickly...
...action. That means the highest-stakes showdown of his administration is all but inevitable. "If he achieves this reform by overcoming big protests, he'll have satisfied the 50% of public opinion approving the measure, thrill fellow conservatives, and re-establish himself as the formidable leader who inspires the French," says Reynié. "If he fails, he's in serious trouble. The reform movement will be stalled; the left revived, conservative rivals will be emboldened to challenge him, and public respect for him blown apart. But there's no going back for Sarkozy now, and the coming months will...