Word: wagnerism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Robert F. Wagner voluntarily gave up New York's mayoralty in 1965, a spent man. When he said that "twelve years are enough," no one argued with him. He was succeeded by the bright, energetic figure of John Lindsay, a Republican who promised to turn Democratic New York upside down...
Ugly Rift. These are not the words of the enthusiastic reformer of yester year - and for good reason. New York, the saying goes, is ungovernable. Yet the city, in some ways, is in worse shape today than it was under Lindsay's canny predecessor, Robert Wagner. Since Lindsay took office, the welfare rolls have doubled. Exorbitant rent increases have alienated and driven out middle-class whites - although the may or recently forced a substantial cutback by threatening landlords with rent control. An explosive experiment in school decentralization has left an ugly rift in the Negro-Jewish ethnic alliance that...
Following a different libretto, the ordinarily affable Nilsson charged that the Met had in fact unilaterally cut her Wagner schedule nearly in half, added vocally taxing side-by-side performances of Aida and Götterdämmerung, and rudely notified her of the changes by a brusque note left by a porter at her hotel room. What miffed her even more was the fact that the Met had added three more Italian roles-she wanted to devote her voice to the Ring-and even carelessly scheduled one performance on the very day she was flying in from Europe. True...
...singers can afford to interrupt them. The result, says Melchior, is that "the breed has practically vanished." Most of the tenors who attempt these heroic roles are a bit jugendlich (youthful-sounding). Meantime, great dramatic sopranos like Birgit Nilsson are Isoldes in search of Tristans, and some of Wagner's finest music is scant ed in the repertory...
...lyrical, as that term is conventionally understood. Debussy's concern for the melody and rhythm of speech, for themes which are insinuating rather than distinctive, for chamber orchestration like evanescent jewelry, and for an architecture of colors, suggest his profound differences with "the old ghost of Klingsor, alias Richard Wagner...