Word: witness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...great stature, however, are few and far between. History especially affords us with few examples of such men. One, though, certainly seems to be Sir Thomas More. More is a figure familiar to most. The author of a great book, a lawyer, a man of wit, charm and learning. More was also a martyr, the man who gave up his life rather than forfeit his principles. He has been made familiar to us through several biographies and, perhaps most permanently by the play and film. A Man for All Seasons...
Even if these worthy but obvious sentiments had been set with the wit of a Brecht or the irony of a Weill, the piece would still be weak. But Librettist Tage Danielsson is no Brecht, and Werle shares with Weill only three letters of their surnames. In an opera as dependent as this on sure- handed pastiche, Werle's parodies of American lounge acts and soulful Russian folk songs consistently fall flat. Surely, the company that premiered Conrad Susa's magical chamber opera Transformations in 1973 and has championed resident Composer Dominick Argento could have chosen a better piece...
...know your name is an adverb?" a woman he is trying to woo snaps at the title character. The wit in this spoof of the old-fashioned gangster melodrama never rises above that mildly agreeable level and is often below it. But perhaps because the writers outnumber Director Amy Heckerling 4 to 1, Johnny Dangerously offers more verbal felicity than it does visual flair. Heckerling has no feeling, affectionate or malevolent, for the genre she is trying to parody and no sense of comic rhythm either. The result is a thin and clumsy thing, in which talented Michael Keaton leads...
IMAGINE HOW pleased a sports car afficionado would be if British Leyland brought back one of those wonderful spoke a wheeled MG's and included better mileage to boot Similar ecstasy has arrived for any person who cares a wit about baseball in the form of a revised edition of Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times. Moreover, the best book ever written about the grand old game also appeals as a vivid depiction of a fascinating slice of American culture...
...Wit, misfit and eccentric, Glenn Gould was one of the most provocative pianists of the century. In 1964, after an international concert career that had lasted only nine years, he abruptly retired from the stage to explore the potential of the recording studio. In more than 90 releases, ranging from two idiosyncratic versions of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations to his transcriptions of Wagner, Gould did just that. Flamboyant willfulness marked too much of his work, but at his best he had a penetrating, furiously original vision. Gould died of a stroke in 1982 at age 50, but he remains...