Tasha Smith's walk is a first-rate performance in itself, capturing the flat-footed, hip-swinging gait of an emaciated addict named Ronnie.
A first-rate performance in a far different register gives blistering life to the mesmerizing revival of the early Eugene O'Neill play "The Emperor Jones" at the Irish Repertory Theater, directed by Ciaran O'Reilly.
Cotten's low-key style and stolid looks made him strangely easy to underestimate, but he contributed some first-rate performances in a handful of masterpieces.
Greene's lesbian second wife, Judith Anderson, is best remembered for a series of first-rate performances in movies that have become gay-cult-classics.
McConaughey and Harrelson turned in first rate performances and I really liked the fact they portrayed morally ambiguous characters who were not obviously or necessarily "good" guys.
Like other internationally successful Australian actors, he returned home from time to time, in his case to take the lead in the underrated Ned Kelly (2003) and the downbeat Candy (2006), in which he turns in a first-rate performance as a doomed drug addict, a movie now difficult to contemplate.
Her "Arecibo Sonata," in a first-rate performance by Max Lifchitz, offered icy chords as introductions to busy figuration, and dance movement with a hint of a French accent.
The brilliant young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, whom I had not heard since 2009 when she took part in Classical Music Day at the White House, was the compelling soloist in a first-rate performance of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. Again, playing with incisive rhythm and crisp articulation is not this orchestra's strong suit.
Students in the Pillow's ballet program honored the future with a first-rate performance of a new work by Wayne Eagling, which began the evening.
You wouldn't expect to put on a first-rate performance without rehearsing, would you?
Now the pool of musicians able to turn out polished, technically first-rate performances on period instruments in the United States is large enough to support active early-music scenes on both coasts.
