Word: magicianly
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...next day there was a brief stop in Cairo to call on the father of disengagement, Anwar Sadat. He was already thinking of the future. The road was now open to larger steps toward peace and to accelerating the shift of his diplomacy toward Washington. He called me a "magician"; I said he had made me one, which was true...
When Handel composed Orlando in 1732, based on the Ariosto saga, his cast of characters consisted of the hero of the title, the Queen of Cathay, an African prince, a shepherdess, and a magician. The setting was simply a nameless forest. "Handel's audience didn't need to be told who Orlando was, as audiences today don't need to be told about Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock," Sellars writes in the production's program notes. "As soon as the characters appeared, the audience had a set of collective expectations, and was ready for action. Thus, I think the logical...
...setting becomes 20th century Florida--specifically 50 miles due east of Orlando, at the Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral. Orlando is an astronaut, of course; the queen is a high-strung debutante; the prince, an infantry soldier; the shepherdess, a funky beach-bunny; and the magician, a project supervisor at Mission Control...
...much of Orlando's appeal lies in the sheer playfulness with which Sellars has approached it. Where the original staging calls for Zoroastro the magician to conjure up a fountain to hide a furtive lover, Sellar's project supervisor summons up a drinking fountain, from which Angelica casually takes a sip. In the conclusion of the original, when Zoroastro calls for a potion, he receives it from the claws of an eagle descending out of the sky. Sellars's Zoroastro receives his potion in the claws of The Eagle--the Apollo 11 lunar module, that is. (In both cases...
...been regaling friends with the stunt for five years, ever since being challenged at a party and finding, to his surprise, that he could do it. He has also been put to the test by skeptical musicians and critics, as well as by James ("The Amazing") Randi, a professional magician who specializes in debunking claims of "paranormal" phenomena. Performing recently for a television crew from That's Incredible! he scored 20 for 20 in a demonstration set up by Temple University Musicologist Stimson Carrow...