Still Life with Mad Lib

Hispanic Classics Flavor a New York Debut

I really, really hope you say it was “spicy” or “spiced up” to reinforce the cultural stereotype you’re invoking. But thanks! Because I get to use the "food metaphor" tag. Which is awesome.

The first New York appearance by the State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico had all the makings of an occasion. Enrique Bátiz, an estimable maestro and the orchestra’s founder, conducted on Sunday afternoon at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in the Bronx. The program featured a promising mix of European, Mexican and American classics, and a noteworthy soloist, the Mexican guitarist Alfonso Moreno.

Occasions are outstanding! On one memorable occasion, I sat in a chair and drank a gin and tonic. Was it going to be like that?

But even before a note had been played, the concert got off to an awkward start. Eva Bornstein, the executive director of the center, told the audience that the soul singer Brian McKnight and the salsa artist Tito Nieves had drawn a capacity crowd on Saturday night, but that this concert, by a prestigious orchestra, had done considerably less well.

She…told the audience that it was too small? Before the concert started? That is awkward! Why would someone do that?

“We don’t want to do just entertainment events here,” Ms. Bornstein said. “We want to do cultural programs as well.”

Translation: Soul and salsa are entertainment, not art. Too bad for you, other cultures!

Despite low ticket prices and a comfortable hall easily accessible by road or mass transit, the house seemed half full. And you had to wonder whether low attendance played a role in a performance that failed to live up to its promise.

It’s the audience’s fault when performers underperform.

Anyway. Let’s have a Mad Lib!

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Arrange the extracted modifiers back into their appropriate positions. This is kind of a hard one!

bawdy/brisk/disengaged/dry/efficient/flat/playful/radiant/untidy

Bernstein’s “Candide” Overture, the opening work, was _______ and _______ but seldom _______. Mr. Bátiz kept an _______ pace but seemed otherwise _______. The _______, _______ acoustics exaggerated some _______ ensemble passages; high woodwinds, xylophone and glockenspiel popped out as if amplified. Even so, the orchestra endowed tuttis with a positively _______ glow.

Click here for the answer.