Monthly Archives: March 2018
Così Fan Tutte in HD 2018
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st March 2018When I heard that the Met was going to do a new production of Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte set in Coney Island during the 1950s I was relieved that they were not going to place the last of the Da Ponte operas in a Turkish brothel. Then I wondered why the Met needed a new production…
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Investing for the Long Run
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th March 2018If you’ve been following the stock market for the last couple of months you’ve likely been afflicted with repeated vasovagal attacks. This is as close to either medicine or opera as I’m going to get in this piece. When the markets submerge the advice emitted by both casual and professional observers is always the same….
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Quotations of the Day
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th March 2018There’s nothing as stupid as an educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in. Will Rogers One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine. Sir William Osler
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O Souverain, ô Juge, ô Père
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd March 2018Massenet’s Le Cid is based on a play by by Pierre Corneille of the same name. First performed in 1885 at the Paris Opera. Rodrigue (The Cid) was written for the great Polish tenor Jean de Reszke. The opera is in 4 acts consisting of 10 tableau. It had 150 performance at the Opera over…
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Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th March 2018An understanding of statistics is essential if a physician, or any interested party, is to understand the medical literature. Alas asking a typical doctor to evaluate statistical data is like giving a scalpel to an accountant and asking him to perform a coronary bypass. My last post on sodium intake gave an example of inadequate…
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The Salinity Obsession
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th March 2018Many physicians and those charged with regulating the nation’s health have been obsessed with salt since Lot’s wife was transformed into a pillar of the stuff. On March 7, 2018 the JAMA published online a well performed study of sodium intake, the investigators used 24 hour urinary sodium excretion as a marker of intake, which documents…
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Semiramide in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th March 2018Semiramide, Rossini’s last Italian opera before his move to Paris, was immensely popular in the 19th century; it all but vanished in the 20th. It’s the last classical Italian opera, a style that succumbed to French Grand Opera and to Italian romantic and more realistic opera. The opera has a plot that makes the Gordian…
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Shostakovich Symphony #4 – Gergiev
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th March 2018Shostakovich’s 4th Symphony is unlike any of his other 14 works in this genre. To begin with, it calls for about 125 musicians. The demands on the players are extraordinary. Though it has only three movements, it typically takes more than an hour to perform. It was written in 1936 and was scheduled to be…
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