Word: gracing
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...GRACE MOORE...
People's Voice. Grace Moore always had the born trouper's instinct for the big way. At her Metropolitan debut the wings were crowded with newsreel cameramen, and Beatrice Lillie and Miriam Hopkins threw violets from the boxes. When a short time afterward, Hollywood beckoned, Grace hired a Pullman, garnished with orchids and banana trees, and went in state. She may not have become the world's greatest soprano, but nobody could accuse her of not acting the part...
...Grace Moore ultimately became the U.S. moviegoer's idea of a great opera star. Music critics have always deplored her dramatic extravagances and lack of vocal subtlety. Of the four roles for which she is known (Mimi, Tosca, Manon, Louise), all have been sung better by others. Her finest performance is her ebullient interpretation of Gustave Charpentier's Louise, in which she was carefully coached by the composer...
...personalities like Grace Moore are not to be reckoned entirely by the operatic yardstick. As she herself states with typical candor: "There may be some who will still say it isn't [a great voice]. But I do have a voice that has made people listen, that seemed to make people happy and exhilarated." With all her faults, she remains one of the few divas since the retirement of Maria Jeritza and Mary Garden who can cause dramatic excitement merely by walking onto the stage...
...country were so solidly laid down that nothing can shake them. These ancestors lived well. Their plain, unlined faces, shown in the book's 150 portraits, were good. They were grave and unaffected, erring, if in any way, on the side of gentleness. Their children were full of grace. The young women were fragile, and the young men were self-satisfied without being either complacent or smug. Their elders were benign, mellowed, trustworthy. They dressed comfortably (there are some 50 pictures of their Sunday and everyday costumes in the book). They built good houses, good ships, strong forts, sturdy...