Word: impresario
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...gimmickry recalls the Veeck of old, who was baseball's most imaginative impresario. While operating the Cleveland Indians (1946-49), the St. Louis Browns (1951-53) and the White Sox (1959-61), he annoyed fellow owners by introducing jugglers and tightrope walkers into the pre-game festivities and staging cow-milking contests for players. Though Veeck is perhaps best remembered as the man who sent a 3-ft. 7-in. midget to bat against the Detroit Tigers,* he also performed some praiseworthy services for the game. He broke the color barrier in the American League by hiring Outfielder Larry...
...never really prospered. In Lear's day, Royal Academy openings were occasions for a grand turnout of the Establishment in sables and broadcloth. Being an impresario for oneself was intrinsic to the success of the Victorian artist. Lear was always a little below the salt. He had his studio at-homes, but those who came to scoff his scones did not remain to pay for his pictures. Briefly he joined the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. But how could his neat landscapes compete with the bogus medievalism of Burne-Jones' Sir Galahad or the religiosity of Holman Hunt...
Still scarred by memories of his war with the tempestuous Maria Callas, Impresario Bing tried to absolve his conductor and soothe his diva. Miss Dernesch, he explained, had merely been engaged as an understudy: "Even Madame Nilsson, as immortal as she is, can get sick occasionally." But since the Austrian soprano was coming all the way to New York, he added, she at least deserves the chance to give one performance in Von Karajan's critically acclaimed production of the Ring. From Vienna, the conductor supplied an obbligato of support to Bing's explanation...
...moment of wrath, Hamburg State Opera Impresario Rolf Liebermann once exclaimed: "It's the directors who ruin everything. It's never the composer, conductor or singers. The directors are just so many dilettanti who don't know their job. Their only concern is their own vanity...
While preparing for the opening curtain of La Gioconda at Miami's Dade County Auditorium, Tenor Richard Tucker suddenly noticed an air-conditioned chill. "Turn it off," he complained; the cool air, he said, would freeze his throat. But of course, said the impresario-and sotto voce told his assistant to leave it on. All through the first two acts, Tucker's anger mounted. Finally, just before the third act he announced: "Unless the air conditioning is turned off, I do not sing a note!" Someone mentioned that the audience might leave. "Let them!" Tucker roared. "They must...