Word: virtuoso
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...That doesn't make sense, does it? If Norton gives such a virtuoso performance and creates such profound sympathy for his character, Fight Club should be a masterpiece, right? Oh, so so wrong...
...Cabernet leftover from the Nixon administration, Edmund Morris agreed to become Ronald Reagan's authorized biographer. What Morris found, or, rather, didn't find, left him in such a state of despair that he went underground for years--quitting drink, staying home weekends and leaving his talents as a virtuoso pianist untapped. Morris spent his time reading the president's private diaries, watching old films and tracking down everyone from Reagan's high school flames to Colin Powell, only to discover that the President had a total lack of interest in other people which left him devoid of any type...
...slightly askew English, "was practice like crazy mad." She spent her youth studying cello, composition and piano ("I love piano. I still play but not in concert"), and gave her first public performance at age seven. But her budding career hit the skids when her father, a prizewinning virtuoso bass player, was judged a political risk by the authorities. "He was incredible bassist," she says, "but he was so much exposed to the West, he started having problems getting work. Then he fell ill and was refused medical treatment." When Ivan Kotov died at age 35, his teenage daughter, unable...
Though Daniels' vibrant voice has made him the first contemporary countertenor with the potential to become an international operatic superstar, many others have had major careers. In the 18th century, falsettists regularly alternated with castrati on the operatic stage, singing the virtuoso coloratura roles of Handel and Gluck. But once the castration of boys was banned, and unaltered male singers started belting out high notes in the manner of the modern tenor, the demand for countertenors began to decline. By the end of the 19th century the voice type had all but vanished; on the rare occasions when baroque operas...
This is a remarkable sentence. There's not a flabby or unnecessary phrase, and no evidence of virtuoso preening, of an author too appreciatively tasting her own words. "Spooled-out year" and "kicked down" suggest a man who tossed his mental baggage together in a hurry, and "strange ground" says something of where he is going. As always, when signs are this clear that an author knows her trade, the reader signs on for the journey...