BAM’s Annual Gala Celebrates a Changing of the Guard and James McAvoy’s Man on Guard, Cyrano de Bergerac

Did you know that Edmond Rostand’s 19th-century drama in verse Cyrano de Bergerac is what popularized the French word panache in the English-speaking world? This was news to me Thursday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s annual gala, which celebrated its brand-new president, Gina Duncan, and extended a hero’s welcome to the cast of the Olivier-winning production Cyrano de Bergerac, from London’s West End. And it was Senator Chuck Schumer, while toasting in his Brooklyn brogue, who taught me something missed in my years of American education. The word panache—then meaning the plume of feathers in Cyrano’s cap—is central… Read Full Article