Word: motif
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Orleans and New York City. Director Jonathan Miller's startling reinterpretation of Verdi's first masterpiece was the talk of London at its premiere in 1982, but it aroused the ire of some Italian Americans after the tour was announced; they objected to the implied Mafia motif. Yet this Rigoletto no more defames Italians than, say, Un Ballo in Maschera does Bostonians. Rather, it recasts the familiar work in a light that forces audiences to rethink it and savor it anew. Renaissance vendettas can seem remote, "operatic," unreal, but transplanted to Mulberry Street in the 1950s, they take...
...fete's official theme is "The World of Rivers: Fresh Water as a Source of Life," and the planners have taken ingenious advantage of the aqueous motif. The main entrance to the 84-acre site is dominated by a sculpture of the sea god Neptune grappling with a tail-flailing native alligator. Flamboyantly presiding over the faux-granite gates are a titanic pair of bare-breasted mermaids, who have stirred a surprising flap in a city sated with live mammary display, and a gigantoid pelican, the state bird (no flap...
...AILEY COMPANY ALWAYS seemed to be introducing a new style or motif in their works, most apparent in "Song Without Words." The ballet used traditional forms but was stripped down to the barest essentials. While it did not transmit the same grandeur that a ballet like "Swan Lake" or "Petrouchka" would, it did have other qualities, more modern inflections. The plain, simple costumes served to outline the human body. More concentration went into individual movements like pointing and flexing the feet, rather than intricate, fast combinations. In this way, the dancers made the bullet majestic, as it almost exalted...
...sense of embattlement and persecution is a motif of the Christian personality But the Christians' sense of being unde siege in their own land did not begin in the past decade. From the Byzantine and the Crusades in the Middle Ages to the French and Americans in 1984, the Christians have repeatedly relied on foreign powers to guarantee their survival and political power...
...pantsuit for day and the androgynous "smoking" for night, boots, turtlenecks, sporty furs. Picasso keeps reappearing, usually in witty design quotations. So do plaids; in 1979, Saint Laurent's heart went deep into the Scottish Highlands, and he made a formidable, fanciful rig. Except for his Mondrian motif, Saint Laurent was not comfortable with minis; the late '60s belonged to André Courrèges. In fact, despite the influence of specific designs, Saint Laurent has not always led a crowd. He raised skirts in 1959, five years too soon. He lowered them in 1964, when the mini...