Word: nucci
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...decade. But last week black, Hispanic and white members of the city's school committee united to elect Boston's first black school superintendent, Laval Wilson, 49, a no-nonsense administrator who has led the public schools in Rochester since 1980. "I'm thrilled," said School Committee President John Nucci, a resident of the blue-collar East Boston neighborhood, adding, "We're off to an optimistic start...
...girl? When ABC airs a Judy Garland mini-series? For our money, it's when a network airs a gay-straight odd-couple sitcom that's not just bad, but boringly so. Batting for the gays, Jason Bateman is adequate as a poor man's Eric McCormack, but Danny Nucci plays a straight Italian stereotype who's like Joey from Friends' dumber brother. Add predictable storylines (I think my roomie has a crush on me!), and you've got Will & Graceless...
Unfortunately, each of the other characters represents a segment of society rather than a person, from Winslet's snobbish mother (Frances Fisher) to DiCaprio's earthy Italian friend (Danny Nucci). Only the underutilized Kathy Bates, who provides tremendous fun as the 'Unsinkable' Molly Brown, stands apart from the cardboard cast. No one is worse than Billy Zane as Winslet's insufferable, domineering fiancee. The character is tragically thin, and Zane does less with it than one would think possible...
...recording of Verdi's Otello on London Records uses this formula neatly. The music is one of the best-known operas by one of the best-known composers of opera, the names are big (Pavarotti, Kiri te Kanawa and Leo Nucci, with Sir Georg Solti at the helm), and the pretext is a double celebration: the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the 100th recording on CD of Solti with the CSO. But, unlike the "Three Tenors" concert or the Amadeus soundtrack, a new recording of Otello is the kind of project that must stand...
Beside the two other principals, Nucci is disappointing as Iago. His voice doesn't seem to provide the kind of deeply treacherous character that the role demands, and, in duets with Pavarotti's passionate warrior, Nucci comes across as an insipid foil rather than a calculating fiend. The tremendous aria Credo in un Dio crudel is unspectacular, and the orchestra actually unseats Nucci in places with its impressive rendering of Verdi's meticulously detailed score. Anthony Rolfe Johnson provides a beautiful Cassio, whose innocent virtue is not equalled by Nucci's sinister duplicity...