Monthly Archives: February 2019
Depuis le Jour – Redux
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th February 2019I’ve done this before, but decided to have another go at it – NK Opera has a number of one hit wonders. French Composer Gustave Charpentier (1860-1956) is one of the few half hit wonders. He was a French proto-hippy whose worldview is perfectly expressed in his first opera Louise. The title character is the…
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Dumber Than a Broom Handle
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th February 2019A state similar to the instrument in the title is often the condition of prominent people who offer pronouncements about issues not related to their expertise. Typically, these proclamations concern politics, economics, and/or science and technology. Athletes and actors are obviously entitled to their opinions. Because they are prominent, their opinions get disseminated and commented…
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The Queen of the Night’s Aria
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th February 2019Mozart’s musical comedy/opera, The Magic Flute, has a story that’s confused even by the loose standard of opera. No matter, it has a lot of good tunes and offers the opportunity for creative stagings. One of its characters, The Queen of the Night, seems to be an OK person at the opera’s start, but ends…
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Maria Carbone
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th February 2019Maria Carbone (1908-2002) was mentioned in my last post about Nicola Fusati. It turns out that she’s another singer with a medical connection. She studied medicine for 4 years before switching to vocal studies. I don’t know what university she attended when a medical student. Her training in singing was at the Conservatorio di San…
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Nicola Fusati
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th February 2019Nicola Fusacchia (1876-1956) really deserves a spot on this site. After earning a medical degree from the University of Rome in 1901, he trained as a surgeon and became chief of surgery in Norcia Hospital in Perugia in 1904. Somehow he found time to study singing. He made his stage debut as Radames in Aida…
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Systolic Blood Pressure Control and Dementia
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th February 2019Dementia increases with age. About 50% of the population 85 years or older will experience some degree of cognitive impairment. Obviously, this problem places an enormous burden on those charged with the care of these patients and an economic load on all of society. There is no treatment currently available to retard cognitive decline in…
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Michael Spyres High Notes and as a Bass
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th February 2019First a YouTube compilation of tenor Michael Spyres singing high notes – some of which can only be heard by dogs. Spyres has mastered mixing, without a noticeable break, all the registers that a tenor can use. His highest notes from operas written before tenors sang high Cs and above from the chest employ voix…
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Reiner Conducts Falstaff – Met 1949
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th February 2019Verdi’s final opera is both a departure from all he had done previously and yet the culmination of a half century career. Building on the musical language the had developed to perfection he wrote an opera that was unlike any that preceded it. Musicians loved it from the start. Richard Strauss thought it one of…
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New (2019) Cholesterol Treatment Guidelines
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th February 2019The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology have released new guidelines for the management of elevated blood cholesterol levels. These guidelines focus on LDL-cholesterol. They are summarized in the figure below which can be enlarged by clicking on it. They were published in a short article in the JAMA which is appended…
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Carmen in HD 2019
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd February 2019The Met presented Carmen for the 3rd time in its HD series. Overall the company has performed Bizet’s opera about a gypsy who smokes 1,897,346,104 times since its first staging by the New York ensemble during its initial season. Actually, the Met first did Carmen in Boston where after a run of 2,000 shows it…
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