Monthly Archives: April 2015
Lubbock Symphony orchestra Video
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th April 2015Below is a 5 minute video outlining the activities of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra.
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Cav & Pag in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th April 2015David McVicar’s new production of opera’s venerable double bill was telecast today from the Metropolitan Opera House. First, before I start to pick a few nits, this production worked. It successfully conveyed the raw passion the two tales of jealousy and murder hurl at the audience with visceral impact even after a century and a…
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Illicit Love
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th April 2015Opera 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 – the…
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Ella Giammai M’amò
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th April 2015‘Ella giammai m’amò’ (from Don Carlo) is the most moving and poignant aria that Verdi, or for that matter anyone except perhaps Mussorgsky, ever wrote for a bass. King Philip controls half the world, but his family and his church defy him. He’s made one of life’s greater mistakes – he’s married a much younger woman….
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Patients With Heart Stents Have Similar Increased Risk of Death from Bleeding and Heart Attacks
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th April 2015Reprinted below is a press release from UC San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente. It shows the deleterious consequences of bleeding in patients who have had a coronary stent inserted. These patients are routinely placed on drugs designed to prevent thrombosis at the site of the stent. For decades I told my students to look for reasons not…
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Carmen Program Notes
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th April 2015The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra will present two concert performances of Carmen – May 1 and 2. Below are the Program Notes I wrote for the occasion. Bizet’s great opera recently had its 1000th performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. Carmen’s popularity is worldwide, yet the work started as a failure. Like The Barber of…
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