Igor

(Peeters 1992)

The Rake's Progress is Stravinsky's biggest work and one of the few great operas written since the 1920s, rare too for the unusual quality of its libretto, by Auden and Kallman. Its importance is undisputed, but so too are the problems it raises: problems of both performance and understanding, caused by the irony with which it is so thoroughly permeated. In aspects of style and operatic convention it looks back to the eighteenth century, and in particular to the operas of Mozart and da Ponte, while making references also to other periods, to operas from Monteverdi to Verdi. Yet at the same time it is wholly a work of the twentieth-century, and indeed it is centrally concerned with the impossibility of return, artistic, psychological or actual, as well as with the nature and limitation of human free will. The Rake's Progress is not one of unbridled dissipation but rather, more interestingly, one of attachment to naive notions of freedom and choice, and his tragedy is that he can never go back.

The portrayal of the Soviet Union during the Cold War period was usually unflattering yet, following the death of Joseph Stalin, the Cold War might not have been quite so cold had a more balanced approach been adopted in the West, for there was a genuine desire by the new administration for a better relationship. IGOR, an account of the experiences of a uniquely talented young Russian, may serve to help illustrate this, though some might dismiss it as implausible.

The 21st Century adventures of the ever popular Henchman Igor. Igor meets assorted vampires, monsters, insane and sane people and works to solve their problems. Special appearances by Laurel and Hardy. Action, Adventure, horror, slapstick, humor, oneliners, sarcasm and occasional exposed body parts due to circumstances. Suggested 18 and up reading. Non-graphic descriptions of butt nekkid Vampiresses, Women's breastsesses, or excessive violence. So all those Church Ladies out there can get away with leaving it on the coffee table for the Reverend to find. There is some light fondling of assorted body parts so...one should remember the original Dracula was a perv, not completely included in here.

The "Adventures of Igor, The Sequel" is of course the sequel to the book "Adventures of Igor," the comedy and concludes the original story which was written for the wonderful readers, who demanded a sequel...With the stamping of feets and calling for more "My Prescious! I wants it now!" Of course, one will want the first before eating...er...reading the second one.

This is the first comprehensive study about the non-mathematical writings and activities of the Russian algebraic geometer and number theorist Igor Shafarevich (b. 1923). In the 1970s Shafarevich was a prominent member of the dissidents’ human rights movement and a noted author of clandestine anti-communist literature in the Soviet Union. Shafarevich’s public image suffered a terrible blow around 1989 when he was decried as a dangerous ideologue of anti-Semitism due to his newly-surfaced old manuscript Russophobia. The scandal culminated when the President of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States suggested that Shafarevich, an honorary member, resign. The present study establishes that the allegations about anti-Semitism in Shafarevich’s texts were unfounded and that Shafarevich’s terrible reputation was cemented on a false basis.

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) was perhaps the twentieth century’s most celebrated composer, a leading light of modernism and a restlessly creative artist. This new entry in the Critical Lives series traces the story of Stravinsky’s life and work, setting him in the context of the turbulent times in which he lived. Born in Russia, Stravinsky spent most of his life in exile—and while his work was deliberately cosmopolitan, the pain of estrangement nonetheless left its mark on the man and his work, distinguishable in an ever-present sense of loss. Jonathan Cross shows how that work emerged over the course of decades spent in Paris, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, in an artistic circle that included Joyce, Picasso, and Proust and that culminated in Stravinsky being celebrated by both the White House and the Kremlin as one of the great artistic forces of the era. Approachable and absorbing, Cross’s biography enables us to see Stravinsky’s life and artistic achievement in a new light, understanding how his work both reflected and shaped his times.