Word: jessel
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...minds of the in graves long since filled, are the figures of Peter Quint (William Cotton) and Miss Jessel (Juhe Kierstine). They both come to life to haunt and terrify the inhabitants of the country house. Quint, an amoral seducer of women and children, has a vaguely sexual psychic hold over Miles. Cotton is powerful as this corrupt character not only because of his impressive voice, but in the way he portrays Quint's chllings unremorseful villainy. The governess battles against him, fighting to save the children from his voice-like hold...
...Furtive figures frantically seek to escape this depressing darkness, a darkness that almost becomes a metaphor for Quint's malevolence. Clever special effects make the two ghosts seem especially spectral. While the evil former man-servant appears and vanishes high at the top of the tower. Miss Jessel is lit from below, a technique which illuminates her grotesquels painted face and casts an abnormally immense black shadow on the ceiling of the room. We are continually reminded by the lighting, as well as the words of the opera, that this is a place in which "the ceremony of innocence...
Britten's score is particularly responsive to the emotions that run through the core of James' story. We not only hear Miss Jessel verbally bemoaning her fate, but also the heavy constant tone of suffering in the music. Even more ambiguous feelings come through, such as the rather naive disbelief that characterizes the housekeeper Mrs Grose (Nan Hughes). Hughes portrays Mrs. Grose as a harried, trusting woman whose gentle nature cannot comprehend the horror that surrounds her. She is a striking example of the professionalism, both in singing and acting, that marks the entire cast of this opera...
DIED. George Jessel, 83, comedian, singer and showman whose ubiquity as an after-dinner speaker earned him the title of America's Toastmaster General; of a heart attack; in Los Angeles. The New York City-born Jessel became a vaudeville headliner with a routine in which he held a telephone conversation with his mother. In 1925 he won fame on Broadway in The Jazz Singer, only to lose the film role-and a place in movie history -to Al Jolson. He went on to produce a string of Hollywood movie musicals before hitting his stride as a master...
...avid student of such glib greats as Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson and George Jessel, Youngman incorporated everything he could learn into an act that is strictly his own, and it works so well, he can't give...