Category: people

“Mr. Fiorato, who was with the City Ballet for 56 years, was a figure of continuity surpassed only by George Balanchine, who founded it in 1948 with Mr. Fiorato’s mentor, the conductor Leon Barzin. Mr. Fiorato held almost every job the company had to offer, starting as its first concertmaster in 1948. ‘I was concertmaster, librarian; I did everything except sweep the floors,’ he once told an interviewer. ‘It was wonderful to be there in those early days.'”

The 84-year-old, who was conducting the National Orchestra of France, lost balance during a movement of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6.

“What he does [professionally], he does well. As a writer of enticing, accessible prose, Franzen is a craftsman. … But as a public figure, Franzen is a frustrating mess. He comes off as small, unsympathetic, out of touch, and tone deaf. … Franzen never apologizes for who he is, or his success, but just like Romney, the more he opens his mouth, the more you want him to shut it.”

“Once celebrated for her taut writing and devotion to social justice, her image since her death in 1984, aged 79, has curdled into something villainous. Her plays are still performed … but they are often dismissed as moralising melodramas. Her name now tends to invite vitriol about her being a Stalinist and a liar.”

“It’s real because it’s a visceral, emotional thing and we all know that. We all know that when the engagement breaks up, you give back the ring. People who keep the ring are really [makes a face of great disgust]. These are emotional balances. They’re in us long before money enters the picture. They’re in us as kids, little kids. ‘It’s not fair,’ kicks in probably between 3 and 4, big time.”

On Uta Hagen: “She is my big idol and hero, and she writes things in those books that everybody should read, especially young singers.”

On taking classes at the Actors’ Studio: “The irony is that I only studied there several months. I never got into scene class. I remember looking around saying, ‘I’m much too well-adjusted to be doing this’.”

“A court found Egypt’s most popular comic actor guilty on Tuesday of insulting Islam in roles in films mocking religious hypocrisy, alarming liberal-minded artists and intellectuals already anxious about the growing power of Islamists here after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.”

“Six days later, the whereabouts of Javier Núñez Florián and Anailín de la Rúa de la Torre remain unknown. They missed the film’s opening on Thursday night, and the Spanish-language press in Miami, sensing another opportunity to score points at the expense of the dictatorship that has ruled Cuba for more than 50 years, is now crowing that the pair, imitating the characters they played, have defected.”

Dick Cavett, who was on hand to introduce the aged, weakened icon on that 1972 evening, recalls the enraptured crowds and how they energized the star – and the energetic, ambitious woman who got him back into performing.