Category Archives: Puccini
La Fanciulla Del West in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th January 2011Tweet Puccini’s La Fanciulla Del West does not enjoy the popularity of the rest of the composer’s mature works. It never will. It’s a wonderful piece that utilizes the orchestra to a greater degree than any other of Puccini’s operas. The orchestral writing is magical. One great melody follows another; they come and go in total sync…
› Read the full entry
Una partita a poker
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th November 2010Tweet Talk to any theater person and he’ll tell you that the second act curtain should descend on the show’s strongest scene. Nobody was better at ending the second act than Giacomo Puccini. With the premiere of the Met’s revival La Fanciulla del West less than a month away, I thought I’d present a few versions of the opera’s second act finale. This the scene where…
› Read the full entry
Or Son Sei Mesi
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th September 2010Tweet Puccini’s cowboy opera, La Fanciulla del West, is returning to the Met this season after an absence of 17 years. 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the opera’s world premiere at the Met. Emmy Destinn and Enrico Caruso sang the leads under the direction of Arturo Toscanini. Puccini supervised the production which was directed…
› Read the full entry
E Lucevan le Stelle
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd July 2010Tweet Everybody know this tune and every tenor sings it. Below is the Italian text followed by an English translation. Just in case anyone is new to opera, the aria occurs near the beginning of the third act of Puccini’s Tosca. E lucevan le stelle, ed olezzava la terra stridea l’uscio dell’orto ed un passo…
› Read the full entry
Glitches Mar Turandot in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th November 2009Tweet Franco Zeffirelli’s sumptuous, gaudy, excessive, over-the-top, or whatever suits your taste production of Puccini’s Turandot was broadcast in HD November 7, 2009. Unfortunately, the transmission was repeatedly interrupted by dropped audio, and occasionally video, signals. An announcement in our theater was made that the problem was global and that the Met was trying to…
› Read the full entry
Tosca in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th October 2009Tweet The Met’s new production of Puccini’s “shabby little shocker” (the only utterance Joseph Kerman will be remembered for) Tosca was broadcast throughout the world today in HD. It was booed at its premiere on the Met’s opening night of this season. Let’s get this out of the way first. There’s nothing in this pedestrian…
› Read the full entry
Met's La Rondine Marred by Technical Glitch
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th January 2009Tweet La Rondine (broadcast today in HD) has been absent from the Met for more than 70 years. The house brought it back solely as a vehicle for Angela Gheorghiu and her spouse Roberto Alagna. Why the Met let’s anything by Puccini languish while it finds the resources for Satyagraha or Dr Atomic can only…
› Read the full entry
Turandot Without the T
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd December 2008Tweet Today’s Puccini’s 150th birthday. To commemorate the occasion NPR’s Performance Today had an interview with noted Puccini expert Fred Plotkin. During its course Plotkin followed the now conventional practice of pronouncing Puccini’s last opera with its final t articulated. While this practice is pretty small beans in the course of human events it’s pedantic…
› Read the full entry
Thoughts On The Puccini Sesquicentennial
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th December 2008Tweet Much of the July 2008 issue of Opera News is devoted to Giacomo Puccini who was born in 1858. Anybody who loves the composer’s operas, which is anyone who has ever heard them and who is not a terminal snob, will enjoy reading the articles analyzing various components of Puccini’s amazing ability with melody…
› Read the full entry
Manon Lescaut in HD – Feb 16, 2008
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th February 2008Tweet I imagine that the Met’s almost 30 year old production of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut was brought back as a vehicle for one of the company’s star sopranos, Karita Mattila. If so it was a mistake. Prior to this run the Finnish singer had only performed one Puccini role at the Met – Musetta in…
› Read the full entry
- RSS feeds
- Subscribe via email
- Follow Kurtzman on Twitter
- Connect with Kurtzman on Facebook
Recommend this site on Facebook:
Recent Posts
Top Posts New
Recent Comments
- gianfranco castelli: voce stupenda , tecnica eccezionale , gli riservano un posto nei grandi della lirica di ogni...
- Operafilly: ****To me, everything is a waste of time, whether you do or not do anything**** . .OH NO!! You...
- Solon: @ Operaphilia : “I tend to figure from the beginning, Sometimes a waste of time……….but occasionally a...
- Operafilly: ***Do you think our truths are more valid than those of our ancestors?*** You are meaning religion?? I...
- Moshe: Why don’t you become his Boswell?, it seems that you may know him enough for this task.
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
› Archives: Older posts and additional material
