His recent records have savvily mixed pop songs, by Prince and Elvis Costello, among others, into a repertory of first-rate standards.
Whether the Ambassador itself can make a comeback depends on whether new owners are willing to invest the millions of dollars needed to bring it to first-rate standards, hotel consultants say.
Yet seeing all three sets of four plays in one day, I was seldom bored or impatient, even if only a few of the individual works meet the standards usually asked of first-rate drama.
Ben Brantley of the New York Times said, "Seeing all three sets of four plays in one day, I was seldom bored or impatient, even if only a few of the individual works meet the standards usually asked of first-rate drama".
Mapleson returned in 1887 and 1889, but The Times commented that the repertoire comprised "works that had long ceased to attract a large public, the singers were exclusively of second-rate quality, and the standard of performance was extremely low".
The present apoplexy over the Affordable Care Act — the proximate cause of this government shutdown — is, by historical standards of hysteria, really first-rate stuff.
AllMusic editor Jose F. Promis gave Segundo Romance four-and-a-half out of five stars, calling it "a first-rate collection of timeless Latin American standards" and praising Miguel's vocals and the album's production.
One or two stars in each side and the remainder are second rate county standard sloggers.
A first-rate piece of social reportage.
You know that [insurance for those on social assistance] pays about a third of the standard rate of the Dental Association.
What I actually did was marry the mind-numbing tedium of a second-rate reality show, with the plodding boredom of a sub-standard pub quiz.
