Word: witting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Julius Levine; RCA). Schubert's ineffable "Trout" Quintet, so named for its use of the composer's song The Trout as the basis of the fourth movement, is one of the glories of the chamber-music repertory, beloved of pianists and string players (and audiences) everywhere for its grace, wit and warmth. Ax's sensitive, full- toned pianism and the Guarneri's rich ensemble are perfectly matched here, to each other and to the piece. Some readings of the "Trout" emphasize its sparkle and brio, but this one favors a relaxed elegance: it is less a day at the beach...
...time. Blood Simple (the title comes from Dashiell Hammett) works terse, elegant variations on a theme as old as the Fall; it subverts the film noir genre in order to revitalize it; it offers the satisfactions and surprises of a conniving visual style. Most important, it displays the whirligig wit of two young men--Joel Coen, 30, a graduate of New York University film school, and his brother Ethan, 27--in a debut film as scarifyingly assured as any since Orson Welles was just this wide...
...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...