Category Archives: Wagner
Die Walküre in HD 2019
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th March 2019Tweet Die Walküre is the best of Wagner’s four Ring operas. How do I know? Well, I can hear and the numbers also tell me so. Giuseppe Verdi was not only opera’s greatest composer, but also came up with the best system of evaluating the worth of an opera. “Look to the box office,” he…
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Court Rules Wagner’s Music Dangerous to Health
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th April 2018Tweet I written about the medical danger to health associated with Parsifal, now a British court has added Die Walküre to the list of hazardous Wagner operas. Violist Christopher Goldscheider convinced the court that playing in a cramped orchestra pit during a 2012 rehearsal of the opera subjected him to a noise level which resulted in…
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Siegfried Wagner – The Impossible Dream
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th January 2018Tweet Suppose you were the son of Richard Wagner and the grandson of Franz Liszt – would the chromosomal burden be too much to bear? We can prove the question by examining the career of Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930). He was born to Richard and Cosima Wagner (1837-1930). Cosima was the illegitimate daughter of Franz Liszt….
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Recording of the Week – Birgit Nilsson 10 CD Set
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th September 2016Tweet Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005) was one of the vocal marvels of the 20th century. No recording, and she made many, can come close to the impact she made in performance. A voice of limitless power and reserve, she could be heard over the loudest orchestral din. Yet she could modulate her tone to whatever the…
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Recording of the Week: Lauritz Melchior Collection
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st March 2016Tweet Lauritz Melchior (1890-1973) was the great heldentenor of the first half of the 20th century. Toscanini called him Tristanissimo, which is also the name of his authorized biography. He sang over 500 performances at the Met where his career was mainly made, though he did sing extensively elsewhere. Born in Denmark, he became an…
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Illicit Love
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th April 2015Tweet Opera abounds in love duets. Here are three that define both their genre and their time. All three involve a man (a tenor, of course) in love, or in lust in the last example, with another man’s wife. Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde were written about the same time –…
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Siegfried in HD – Walking the Planks
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th November 2011Tweet Before going to a performance of Wagner’s third Ring Cycle opera you should wear comfortable shoes, loose clothing, and drink no fluids starting six hours before the curtain. Thus prepared I got through Siegfried without losing consciousnesses more than two or three times. In fact I enjoyed the performance. Robert Lapage’s Rube Goldberg set consisting of a couple of dozen planks driven…
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Das Rheingold in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th October 2010Tweet On Saturday October 9 the Metropolitan Opera presented its first HD telecast of the 2010-11 season with its new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, the opera that opened the Met’s current season. Robert Lepage’s production which uses computerized projections, shifting platforms, and flashy lighting has attracted much attention. The set which is little more…
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The Ghost in the Machine – A Cautionary Tale
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th July 2010Tweet It all started a couple of years ago on a Saturday afternoon. I turned on the radio to listen to the weekly Metropolitan Opera broadcast, forgetting that Parsifal was scheduled. Being comfortably settled in a stuffed reclining chair, I was too lazy to turn the radio off. Besides, nothing can put you to sleep…
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Anything But Wagner
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th October 2009Tweet The following was originally published at Grandi-Tenori.com, but it’s no longer available there. I wrote it 5 years ago. NK No great composer induces passion the way Richard Wagner does. Knowledgeable opera goers seem to be divided into warring camps, vigorously campaigning for and against the art of the egomaniac of Bayreuth. In 50…
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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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