Bravura ***

bravura







Y

D



–noun 

1. Music. a florid (鮮紅色的, 過分華麗的) passage or piece requiring 

great skill 

and 

spirit in the performer.  



florid 

I only read the first chapter, but the author's style struck me as [excessively elaborate] and [almost florid]. 

Meager



2. a display of daring; brilliant performance.  



–adjective 

3. Music. spirited; florid; brilliant (applied chiefly to 

vocal 

but occasionally to instrumental compositions).  





C



bravado, bravery, bravura (nn.) 

   

Bravado is "blustery (大風的) pretended courage": His bravado didn’t really [mask] his terror. 



Bravery is "the showing of courage 

in the face of danger, a display of nerve": His bravery [in the face] of frightening odds was truly splendid. 



Bravery is also "a fine, showy appearance": The [bravery] of their uniforms made the troop [sparkle].



Bravura is "brilliant style, daring boldness" 

and, in music, 

"a display of technique, the showy brilliance of the performer’s skill"; it may be used as a noun adjunct (修飾語): 



His horsemanship was [brilliant], a [bravura] demonstration. 

The "Carnival of Venice" is a bravura [showpiece] for the cornetist. (小銅喇叭吹奏者)









　

Not since Evan Hunter's seminal 1974 novel Streets of Gold has an epic followed the shifting currents of contemporary Italian lives with 



as much bravura 

as Marco Tullio Giordana's La Meglio Gioventù 



-- (The Best of Youth). Shot for Italian television but screened at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival (and around the world) as a six-hour feature, Gioventù turns its gaze to the interworkings of a single Mediterranean family, the Caratis. Shifting between substories, Giordana uses the extended run time to map out the transitions of each character over the decades 



so [smoothly], [subtly], and [convincingly] 

that those changes 

[fly under] the audience's [radar].



The director works melodramatic twists into his formula, but, surprisingly, those twists never feel necessary. 



Giordana uses the more histrionic events only as formulaic hooks (and benchmarks), 



and something more essential and wondrous begins to happen at the core of the drama: we find ourselves pulled gently into the sweet, subtle and lyrical growth of the Carati family, collectively, over the passing years -- 



as a larger product of the individual characters' transitions. Equally impressive is Giordana's ability to not only wrap the narrative around Italian historical poles (which will elude Americans in their specificity but are obvious in their existence) but to use the familial events 



as a kind of microcosmic analogue (and corollary) 



of the broader conflicts in Italian society -- particularly that of the Red Brigade terrorist underground versus the establishment.









tenacity fortitude mettle 

valor 

chivalrous clairvoyance chicanery

valiant

implies a [correspondence] between an 

[inner] courageousness 

and [external] deed, particularly of [physical] strength or endurance.

"I think from a career and commercial point of view, it's probably a mistake to make Daisy Miller, 

but from an artistic point of view,

I think it was [valiant], and I'm very, very proud of it, and I'm glas we made it."

courageous

implies a [higher] or [noble] kind of bravery, from an [inborn] quality with [enthusiasm].

gallant

implies a [chivalrous], [impetuous], or dashing bravery.

Tenuous



segue staccato cf. legato

rendition  

coda penultimate denoument

schmaltz schlep 

icky (sentimental)

serenade aria crescendo bravura Tenuous

libretto

pastiche panache 

threnody

tonic (keynote)

Threnody