Monthly Archives: October 2012
Otello in HD – Moor Murdered at Met
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th October 2012The Metropolitan Opera presented Verdi’s opera Otello for the first time in its HD series. The result was perhaps the biggest disappointment since the HD telecasts started. The fault was twofold. First the sound was poorly audible for the first half of the performance. It sounded like a radio with the volume turned halfway down. The…
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The Drunkard’s Walk and the World Series
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th October 2012The Drunkards Walk is a book by Leonard Mlodinow which examines the ubiquity of randomness in all things human. As our annual celebration of randomness, The World Series, is now underway another look at the random seems worth an at bat. Baseball is a game where the “best” team often loses to a “weaker” team. It’s rare…
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Pain Management
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th October 2012The Oct 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has a Perspective piece – Why Doctors Prescribe Opioids to Known Opioid Abusers – that instructs beyond its immediate content. Written by Anna Lembke, MD, a member of Stanford’s Department of Psychiatry, it deals with one of medicine’s two core purposes, the relief of pain. In the first half…
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Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s 50th Birthday
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th October 2012The Russian baritone was born 50 years ago today in Krasnoyarsk Siberia. To mark the occasion here are some pictures of the singer taken by Robert Cahen. Here’s the baritone aria from Gounod’s Faust to complement the photos. Hvorostovsky – Avant de quitter ces lieux
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L’Elisir d’Amore in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th October 2012The first of this season’s Metropolitan Opera’s TV broadcasts was transmitted around the world today. Donizetti’s Elixir of Love is in my opinion one of the five best comic operas ever composed. The other four are two by Rossini and one each by Verdi and Puccini. Donizetti’s take on comedy tends towards the sentimental whereas Rossini takes…
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Luciano Pavarotti’s Birthday
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th October 2012Today is the 77th anniversary of the great tenor’s birth – born October 12, 1935 in Modena, Italy. To mark the occasion here a few photos of the late tenor take by the renowned photographer Robert Cahen. Finally here is the young Pavarotti singing the first act duet from Lucia Di Lammermoor with Renata Scotto – 1967. Verrano a te
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Giuseppe Di Stefano – Candid Photos
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th October 2012The photos of Pippo were provided to me by Robert Cahen. The one, just below, with the late tenor and his cigarette holder is priceless. Note the gloves.
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Moby-Dick in San Francisco
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th October 2012The dress rehearsal for the upcoming run of Jake Heggie’s new (2010) opera based on Melville’s novel took place at the War Memorial Auditorium on Sunday afternoon October 7. Librettist Gene Scheer has, of course, compressed Melville’s epic of obsession, the sea, and almost everything else into the episodes at sea starting from one week…
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San Francisco Symphony Plays Pärt, Bartók, and Respighi
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th October 2012Last night the San Francisco Symphony presented a program of 20th century music of very different styles under the leadership of the young (born 1976) Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko. The program began with Arvo Pärt’s 1977 composition Fratres. Pärt has reworked this piece many times; the San Franciscans played the 1991 version. The basic structure of work is simple….
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Bellini at the SFO – Photos by Robert Cahen
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th October 2012Here are some photographs of the current production of Bellini’s I Capuleti E I Montecchi at the San Francisco Opera. They were kindly provided by the distinguished opera photographer Robert Cahen.
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