(3 of 4)
THE ART OF ZINKA MILANOV (RCA Victrola). This is a collection of arias from La Forza del Destino, La Gioconda, A Ida, II Trovatore and Un Ballo in Maschera, recorded between 1951 and 1955. At no other period during her 29-year career with the Met (1937-1966) did the Yugoslav soprano (nee Zinka Kunc) match so well the lustrous opulence, moonlight pianissimos and steady vocal control that are so obvious here. The extraterrestrial lightness of her opening high F natural in "Pace, pace, mio dio" from La Forza is undoubtedly one of the great moments in all recorded opera.
CINEMA
THE BRIDE WORE BLACK. Director Fran?ois Truffaut pays unabashed homage to Alfred Hitchcock in this sly, tautly acted thriller about a homicidal widow (Jeanne Moreau) who sets out to avenge the murder of her husband.
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER. A subtle and probing performance by Alan Arkin as a deaf-mute brings poetry to this rather prosaic adaptation of Carson McCullers' novel.
ISABEL. Canada's Genevieve Bujold generates an air of adolescent terror in the chilling tale of a young girl growing rapidly to womanhood while tormented by the memories of another life.
RACHEL, RACHEL. Paul Newman makes his debut as a director in this quiet tale of a frustrated schoolteacher entering middle age. His wife, Joanne Woodward, gives the film added stature with her achingly real portrayal of the heroine.
ROSEMARY'S BABY. This film version of Ira Levin's bestselling tale of devil worship in Manhattan proves that Mia Farrow is not just a singer's exwife. Her performance is at the Oscar level.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. A cosmic parable of once and future man, directed by Stanley Kubrick. The visually magnificent scenes of space travel are out of this world.
VOYAGE OF SILENCE. This deceptively simple story of a young Portuguese carpenter emigrating to Paris is a small masterpiece of compassionate observation and emotional restraint.
BOOKS
Best Reading
BRIEF AGAINST DEATH, by Edgar Smith. An impassioned did-I-do-it? written in the New Jersey death house by the convicted murderer of a 15-year-old girl.
LOST IN THE FUNHOUSE, by John Barth. The author of The Sot-Weed Factor and Giles Goat-Boy experiments with 14 highly inventive pieces of fiction, some of which are intended to be heard as well as read.
OUTER DARK, by Cormac McCarthy. A backwoods brother and sister, their abandoned child, and three archetypal murderers are the major elements in this Southern gothic horror story.
THE BLACKING FACTORY and PENNSYLVANIA GOTHIC, by Wilfrid Sheed. Funny, feverish and very finely wrought accounts —a short novel and a long story—of two adolescents whose futures are staked out by their fantasies about the past.
ANTONIO IN LOVE, by Giuseppe Berto. The Italian novelist listens to young love's first brave banalities with a nice ear for irony.
FRAGMENTS OF A JOURNAL, by Eugène Ionesco. In a chaotic but painfully fascinating self-analysis, a leading playwright of the Theater of the Absurd discusses the neurotic roots of his art.