Category Archives: Opera
All of Jussi Björling’s Commercial Recordings on the Web
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd April 2012New posts will resume next month. In the meanwhile visit this site which contains all of the solo commercial recordings made by the great Swedish tenor. There are a few excerpts with other singers, but most of the material is solo.
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Manon in HD – Crazy Stupid Love
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th April 2012The Metropolitan Opera transmitted its penultimate HD telecast of this season - Massenet’s Manon – on Saturday April 7, 2012. Manon is the most French opera I can think of. It’s almost like an opera Debussy would have written had he been able or inclined to write boffo arias and duets. This new production was staged by Laurent Pully who…
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La Muette de Portici Premiered at Opéra-Comique
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th April 2012Daniel Auber’srarely performed opera La Muette de Portici was stage by the Opéra-Comique in Paris yesterday. It featured the rising young American tenor Michael Spyres. The opera was a success at its premiere in 1828, but then disappeared from the repertory and is known, if known at all, as the first Grand Opera – a genre dominated by Meyerbeer, but which reached…
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The Photographs of Robert Cahen – Samuel Ramey
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th March 2012Today is the 70th birthday of the great American bass Samuel Ramey. To mark the anniversary here are 7 photographs of the singer taken by Robert Cahen. A bonus – Assur’s mad scene from the second act of Rossini’s Semiramide. This is from the performance of the opera at the Met on Dec 29, 1990. Ramey Semiramide Deh ti ferma…Que…
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Mozart, Verdi, and Heart Transplantation
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th March 2012This observation appeared just five days ago. It sounds like it belongs in the Journal of Irreproducible Results rather than the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Nevertheless, here is the paper’s abstract : Auditory stimulation of opera music induced prolongation of murine cardiac allograft survival and maintained generation of regulatory CD4+CD25+ cells Masateru Uchiyama, Xiangyuan Jin, Qi Zhang, Toshihito…
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The Pearl Fishers Duet
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th March 2012Bizet’s opera, Les pêcheurs de perles, is gradually creeping into the operatic mainstream. The composer was only 25 when he wrote the work; it was not a great success; but it’s hung around the periphery of the standard repertory for almost a century and a half. The Santa Fe Opera will stage it this summer as will the Opéra-Comique. The tenor-baritone duet (‘Au fond du…
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La Traviata Program Notes
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 1st March 2012Below are the program notes I wrote for the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra’s performances of Verdi’s La Traviata March 2 and 3, 2012. La Traviata was Giuseppe Verdi’s 19th opera. Though the composer was dissatisfied with its initial run, the opera rapidly established itself as his most popular work. Indeed, it may be the most popular opera even…
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The Photographs of Robert Cahen – Simon Boccanegra in LA
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th February 2012The 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.
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Pourquoi Me Réveiller?
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th February 2012Werther 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…
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La Traviata in Lubbock
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th February 2012The 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.
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About Neil Kurtzman
Neil A Kurtzman MD is the Grover E Murray Professor Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Internal Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. He has combined careers in clinical medicine, education, basic research, and administration for more than 30 years.› Read the biography
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