The Literature Network - An affair to remember

An affair to remember

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From: Opera News
Date: 19960120
Author:Teachout, Terry

Leafing through H. L. Mencken's New Dictionary of Quotations in search of the authentic version of a half-remembered bon mot, I stumbled across a saying of Ambrose Bierce, the famously cynical author of The Devil's Dictionary: "'You scoundrel, you have wronged me,' hissed the philosopher. 'May you live forever]'" The serendipity of this discovery will be immediately apparent to admirers of Vec Makropulos, Leos Janacek's eighth opera, which receives its Metropolitan Opera premiere this month. Bierce's aphorism, as crisply ironic as the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times," might ...

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