Monthly Archives: January 2008

Birgit Nilsson’s 3 Favorite Tenors

Birgit Nilsson’s autobiography was published in Swedish in 1995. It appeared in a German translation in 1997. Recently Northwestern University Press has published it in English. But it is the German translation that has appeared in English. Thus one wonders what has been gained in translation. Operatic memoirs usually consist of I sang this here…


Read the full entry

The American College of Physicians and Health Care

The ACP just released a position paper on health care access. It’s a comprehensive analysis of our system compared to those of other developed countries. It’s a fair and sober as long as you start from the view that what’s needed in the US is a single payer system. It says it wants to learn…


Read the full entry

Alice Coote’s Brain

The aptly named Alice Coote, Hansel in the Met’s current production of Hansel and Gretel, was guest quiz master on yesterday’s Opera Quiz. She felt compelled to answer a question she had put to the other participants, namely what current topic would make a good opera. Her answer to her own question was a silly…


Read the full entry

Coming Soon: Birgit Nilsson's 3 Favorite Tenors

Jussi Björling and Franco Corelli are not among these three, though the great diva professed profound admiration for both of them. Read about it here – soon. Well, you could read about it somewhere else, which is where I found it.


Read the full entry

How I Spent New Year’s Eve

If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free – PJ O’Rourke I hope you had fun celebrating the New Year. I was supposed to be at a gay soiree – well not gay, festive. You know what I mean. I didn’t make the party. Instead I…


Read the full entry

More on the Medical Establishment

In the January 3, 2008 issue of the world’s best and most important medical journal –The New England Journal of Medicine – Gregory D. Curfman, M.D., Stephen Morrissey, Ph.D., and Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D. discuss a case before the Supreme Court – Riegel v. Medtronic. The case involves whether state law and federal law conflict…


Read the full entry

Relic of the Month (Also found on Commentary page)

ET Don’t Phone Home (Cheap cell phones have made this much worse – NK 2008) Contrary to widely-held belief, the purpose of language is not communication. Whatever part of the academy that is responsible for this sort of thing estimates that 85% of all conversations are about nothing at all; they seem to serve some…


Read the full entry

Hansel and Gretel in HD

The Met’s second high definition galaxy wide broadcast on New Year’s Day was Engelbert Humperdink’s Hansel and Gretel. This fairy tale opera has been very popular since its premiere in 1893. Why I can’t fathom. The work is both Wagner-lite and Grimm-lite. The music is pleasant enough, but nothing really memorable or very dramatic happens….


Read the full entry

Categories

twitter facebook rss