Two Who Transformed Their Worlds: Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993)

HE WENT DOWN DEFIANTLY, ALL guns firing. Until the very end of his long struggle with AIDS, Rudolf Nureyev continued to live ravenously, leading an amazingly active life, conducting when he could no longer dance, continuing to travel the world, transforming his beloved private island off Italy's Amalfi coast as if he would be able to live there for decades. Above all, working. When he died last week at 54, the world of the performing arts mourned him as not only a great dancer but also a rare source of energy in artistic life.

He was the first of the postwar...

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