Word: magical
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Quennell was fascinated by Greta Garbo, whose beauty "was at times a burden-a valuable but perishable gift, like a magic snowball, held in the palm of the hand, that is bound to melt away." But he adds: "Beauty to be entirely irresistible should be observed across a gulf." The author has been married five times, in each case to a ravishing beauty...
...reluctance to view cigarette production as immoral is widespread. Supporters of companies like Philip Morrison reason that the guiding tenet of American commerce has been consumer freedom of choice, from the days of wagon-pushing peddlers selling magic elixirs to computerized, stylized Madison Avenue marketing. As long as smokers understand the risks cigarettes pose, many believe, others have no business trying to discourage or eliminate tobacco production...
...same messages which used to mark American ads, saying in effect. "You're smart if you smoke" or "Smoking is good for your sex life," the World Health Organization magazines has reported. All of the important people, the ads imply, have ridden to a position authority on a magic carpet of smoke...
...hasn't worked out that way. Directors have generally been content either to substitute handsome actors for the singers supplying the sound track or simply to shoot a stage production. A breakthrough came in 1975, when Ingmar Bergman produced a charming The Magic Flute that began in a replica of Stockholm's 18th century Drottningholm Court Theater and from time to time moved beyond the confines of the stage. Even more ambitious was Joseph Losey's mesmeric Don Giovanni (1979), expansively set amid the Palladian splendors of northern Italy...
...activity limited to America. Since 1975, Levine has appeared regularly at the prestigious Salzburg Festival in Austria, leading widely acclaimed productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute and La Clemenza di Tito in the composer's home town. When Wolfgang Wagner, grandson of Richard, was seeking a conductor for last summer's centennial production of Parsifal at Bayreuth, Levine was his choice. "Jimmy's star is going up," says a member of the Chicago Symphony. "I don't think anything will interrupt the rise." Levine talks about his ascent to prominence with a characteristic mixture...