Word: swanning
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Domingo began slowly, pacing himself for the nearly five-hour evening. His singing in Act I was careful but not tentative; he infused Lohengrin's valedictory to his swan with the wistful Italianate warmth of a love song. In the second act, he sang passionately as Lohengrin tries to protect Elsa, his betrothed, from Ortrud's Iago-like machinations. By the third act, he was in full command, delivering the difficult Grail narration, in which Lohengrin sorrowfully reveals his identity and his obligation to leave Elsa, with power and poignancy. It may not have been idiomatic...
...production by August Everding, general manager of the Bavarian State Theater, follows the contemporary European fashion of outfitting Wagner's operas in morally ambiguous shades of gray. His 10th century Brabant is a dour place; pageantry blossoms only during Lohengrin and Elsa's wedding, and the famous swan is banished to the world of the imagination. While this approach has a certain intellectual and historical validity, perhaps the time has come again for a romantic, representational Lohengrin, for Everding's interpretation is fundamentally at odds with the A-major radiance of the score...
...Wednesday-night balloting approached, only one substantive question remained: What kind of message would Hart deliver in his prime-time convention swan song? As it turned out, Hart paid obeisance to Mondale without explicitly abandoning his forlorn quest for the nomination. He praised his opponent's "unsurpassed grit, perseverance and determination." He told the loudly applauding delegates that whatever their nomination choice, he would "devote every waking hour and every ounce of energy to the defeat of Ronald Reagan." And he added a nice line: "This is one Hart you will not leave in San Francisco...
...actress to project the part through a theater as big as the Metropolitan Opera House. Adding insult to neglect, Baryshnikov and Anastos even bring on a glamorous masked lady (Leslie Browne) whom the Prince (Patrick Bissell) mistakes for Cinderella. The idea may be a bow to Odile in Swan Lake or several figures in Balanchine, but whatever the source, love's counterfeit has more vitality than its true image...
...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...