Today (Saturday Feb 25, 2012) the Metropolitan Opera presented Verdi’s Ernani on it’s HD network. There was something about a Spanish setting that set Verdi’s creative fire at conflagration level. Ernani in style and color most closely resembles Il Trovatore, though of course, it’s not as inspired even if its plot is almost as crazy. Verdi was…
Brahms is harder to conduct than any other major composer. This difficulty arises because there’s more to his works than the surface of the score indicates. A conductor has to have this music in his heart in addition to his head. A strict literal reading of his music leads to pedestrian performances. A good example…
Below is an memorial tribute to Dr Robert Kimbrough written by Don Wesson and me following the death of Dr Kimbrough. It was published by both the American Journal of Medical Sciences and the Texas chapter of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Robert Kimbrough died on November 24, 2010. For the past 17 years, he was…
The following photographs of Placido Domingo and Ana Maria Martinez were taken by Robert Cahen on February 5, 2012. The occasion was a dress rehearsal of the Los Angeles Opera’s staging of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. The production is from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
A few days ago the home button on my HTC EVO stopped working. The picture to the left shows the recalcitrant button. After a lot of googling and a similar dose of experimentation I fixed the problem. I suspect that this fix will work on any HTC phone, but I don’t know for sure. The…
Werther is Massenet’s masterpiece. It’s an ode to self pity. It and Manon are the only operas, out of more than 30 by Massenet, that are firmly in the standard repertory. The opera, based on Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, depicts its protagonist’s unsuccessful and ultimately suicidal love for his friend’s fiance and then wife. If Werther had…
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Daniel Patrick Moynihan Government provided or mandated medical care appears ready to bankrupt the civilized world. Here are two examples of the mess we’ve created in an effort to make life better. First contraception. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the most oxymoronic name…
A short perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine (the world’s leading journal of general medicine) shows what we’re up against in any attempt to provide medical care on a rational basis. A 55-year-old white man is described. He had normal blood pressure, exercised regularly, was not overweight, not diabetic, and had never smoked. He…
The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra will present two concert performances of Verdi’s opera on March 2 and 3. Amanda Hall is Verdi’s noble courtesan, Tenor Scott Ramsay is her overwrought lover Alfredo, and baritone Ashley Prewett is his father Germont. Thomasz Golka will conduct the LSO and the Lubbock Civic Chorale.
A recent article in Digital Photography extols the virtues of using a high end printer to make display quality prints from equally high quality digital cameras. Actually, it just describes several top of the line printers. It doesn’t give a good reason for owning one. The reason is that there isn’t any good reason. Printers…