Word: splendid
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...loveliest music in Messiah, and Bauwens proves himself wholly equal to it. His Part II recitatives, "All they that see Him laugh Him to scorn" and "Thy rebuke hath broken His heart," separated by the magnificent "He trusted in God that He would deliver Him" chorus, comprise a truly splendid few minutes. In contrast to Bauwens' clear, smooth timbre is the bass, Eric Owens, whose very deep, very dark-sounding voice seems almost to emerge from some inhuman source. This rumbling, rapid-vibratoed effect seems especially apt in the prophetic aria, "Darkness shall cover the earth." The sinister threats...
McMurtry's new novel is both sequel and prequel, chronologically the second installment, though written last, of a four-part saga whose splendid third book (written first) is that most beguiling of all horse operas, 1985's Lonesome Dove. A raunchy, sentimental narration about a couple of old Texas Rangers on a cattle drive, this Pulitzer prizewinner was McMurtry at the absolute top of his form. The author, as much in love with Lonesome Dove as his readers were, contrived a sequel, Streets of Laredo (1993). It was pale and sad because Gus McCrae, one of his heroes, was dead...
This is not to say that her performance is never affecting. In the second act, after family conflicts boil over into a splendid conflagration, her Moya is particularly heart-wrenching as she minimizes her husband's peccadilloes and as she finally breaks down under her weight of grief. But even when she jerks tears from the audience, her performance seems incongruous...
Besides, Connor loved the piece--a splendid portrait of a woman often mistaken for Rembrandt's sister. "There are Rembrandts," says Connor, who could probably run Christie's and Sotheby's from inside the can, "and there are Rembrandts." Though it was valued at $1 million at the time, "it was actually worth" much more, he says, given the inflated art market...
...Hillel says that she selected it for performance in part because she wanted to take advantage of the often under-utilized "pool of talented women at Harvard," and this she has succeeded in doing. The actresses in the play's supporting roles do not fade beside Jirmanus's splendid Yerma but instead complement her and each other, bringing a multitextured and vibrant life to the text's potentially flat and symbolic set of characters...