Word: joie
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Robustly conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, the opera's simple Midwestern melodies provide an ideal complement to the graceful stage pictures, while the cast, headed by soprano Ashley Putnam (St. Theresa I) and baritone Sanford Sylvan (St. Ignatius), projects Stein's words and Thomson's music with true joie de vivre...
...legend herself, Faye Dunaway as Jack's wife, Marilyn, seems to have tapped into a fountain of youth. As Jack's libido and joie de vivre increase via the vicarious thrills of Don Juan's tales, Jack begins to rekindle romance with his startled wife. Dunaway is an uneasy lover, awkward in responding to his advances, but accepts his kisses with faint detachment. Despite their combined monumental talents, Dunaway and Brandc have trouble settling into a credible domestic arrangement. But as botched as their love scenes may be, they are infinitely more interesting than the purple-prose narration...
...School Drama Society's production, Kevin Oliver, as Father Jack, further complicates his ambiguous character by portraying him as the most gleeful, warm-hearted and endearing of men. Despite his dishevelled appearance and shambolic demeanor, he exudes joie de vivre and good nature. He undercuts his sinister seduction by the forces of primitive religion with his childlike innocence and enthusiasm...
This story may be in part autobiographical (Lee wrote it with his sister Joie Susannah and his brother Cinque), but the characters and their situation also owe something to 1945's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in which an immigrant family offered similar characters, though not so large a family, facing the same basic problems: clinging to their respectability and trying to make certain the kids grow up smart, honest and able to claim a surer place for themselves in the world...
...diehards among us, all we ask for is a little excitement. Make it interesting. It's like the Red Sox: if you're gonna lose (which, let's face it, they are gonna do), do it with style. Panache. Verve. Joie de vivre, even. We'll forgive the lack of trophies...