Monthly Archives: February 2014
More on Je Crois Entendre Encore
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd February 2014My post on Je crois entendre encore has had a lot of views since it first appeared. I recently received the comments below from Tom Herz of San Francisco. I found them so insightful that I thought they deserved a post of their own. NK Seeing as how you posted this over 2 years ago,…
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February Birthdays
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st February 2014Cesare Siepi was born on February 10 some time between 1919 and 1923. He died in 2010. The photo below is of the great bass in one of his most renowned roles – Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The photo was taken by the noted photographer of the San Francisco Opera Robert Cahen as were the other…
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Miami City Ballet – Triple Threat
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th February 2014On February 15, 2014 the Miami City Ballet presented three dances under the collective title of Triple Threat. The first, Episodes, was set to five pieces by Anton von Webern. It is a recreation of a ballet created by George Balanchine in 1959. Webern was a key member of the Second Viennese School which I…
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Tutto Verdi: Stiffelio
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th February 2014Verdi’s 16th (depending on how you count) opera has the oddest libretto of any he used. The action takes place in and around a castle in Salzburg that is the headquarters of a fictional Protestant sect headed by its minister Stiffelio who also uses the alias Rodolfo Müller. Both his wife Lina and her father…
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Rusalka in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th February 2014Antonín Dvořák’s penultimate opera, and the only one to be near the frontier of the standard operatic repertory, was telecast on Saturday February 8th. The opera was first presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 1993 with Gabriela Benacková in the title role. The current performance was the 25th time the Met has staged the work….
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Crash Fixed
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th February 2014You may have noticed that this site has been down since Wednesday. The server in Germany crashed. I learned a few lessons from this unfortunate event. The Germans don’t work on weekends even to fix a crash that affects many sites and customers. – so much for Teutonic industriousness. In the USA the owners of…
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