But as Ms. Queler's company has always shown, opera — even grand opera — is never really about the décor, at least not when you have her taste for excellent, fiercely committed singers.
Cillian Murphy is excellent as the fiercely committed Josef Gabčík Jamie Dornann does very well in the slightly more reticent role of his co-conspirator Jan Kubiš.
Mr. Stoiber, fiercely conservative, is considered an excellent economic manager of the country's most prosperous state at a time when Germany is sinking into recession and the number of unemployed is close to four million.
There's an awareness here of both the absurdity of such institutions and the profound effectiveness of their subjects; Stearns's humour follows in a similar, sternly hilarious vein, drawing lines for a deranged psychological battle fiercely fought by its two excellent leads.
He's also a fiercely independent thinker with an excellent legal mind, who believes passionately in equal opportunity for all Americans.
This strategy has proved successful, and subsequent Ryder Cup matches have been fiercely contended, with both teams exhibiting excellent play.
The two writers, Bram notes in what is presumably meant as lively dish, "are both highly literary and well-read, write excellent prose and are fiercely productive.
The encounter between the Virgin Mary (Jessica Lee Keller, excellent) and the Angel Gabriel (a fiercely asexual Ms. Schachte) provides Mr. Preljocaj the opportunity to meditate on creation in this sensual, rigorously structured duet.
There is excellent support from Anna Francolini as his fiercely resented stepmother, and from Pippa Bennett-Warner as Caroline's elder daughter for whom a brighter future beckons.
Taking viewers from the sun-parched flatlands of Texas to a dreary bus depot in Brooklyn to a rain-slicked highway in Portland, Me., the Parrish retrospective gives an excellent account of Mr. Downes's fiercely terrestrial painting.
