His vocal writing, though crisp and snappy, allows space for long-spun operatic flights that are touched with parody yet still sweep you along.
It's a place where one can "experience the most extreme cold and blizzard even at the height of August," and where Cave's shipmates are "touched with dread even when the sun shone".
Jonathan is a reasonably complex character — his good intentions are touched with arrogance, his judgment clouded by infatuation and pride — and Mr. Day-Lewis gets to display his intelligence and sardonic humor in satisfying portions.
Though this is a witty and skillfully scored neo-Rococo suite, in Grieg's hands the Gavotte and Rigaudon are touched with the heavy-footed bounce of Norwegian folk dance as well as some inner sadness.
The admirable handling of the sky in which the clouds are touched with salmon pink by the sun about to vanish and the detailed rendition of countryside life make it one of the Haarlem school painter's finest works.
It takes a sort of genius to recognize genius, which is often mistaken for folly and even an artist's own critical misevaluations are touched with their own kind of genius.
