Monthly Archives: August 2021
Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st August 2021The Vatican Museum has a virtual tour of the interior of the Sistine Chapel. With your mouse you can see everything Michelangelo painted. Not as good as being there, but you’ll never visit the place without anyone else there. The pinnacle of western art. Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour
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Pericles’ Funeral Oration
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th August 2021Pericles’ Funeral Oration was recorded, in an edited version, by Thucydides in book two of his History of the Peloponnesian War. The speech was delivered at the end of the first year of the war with Sparta – around 430 BC. It was an Athenian custom of the time to hold an annual commemorative event to…
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Marcel Wittrisch
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th August 2021Marcel Wittrisch (1901-55) was born to a German family in Antwerp, Belgium. He studied voice in Munich, Leipzig, and Milan. His operatic debut was in Halle in 1925. His career was based in Berlin. He started as a lyric tenor with a voice whose timbre was also well suited for operetta. As his career progressed…
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Trio Balkan Strings
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th August 2021The Trio Balkan Strings is a father and his two sons team – all acoustic guitar players. They are based in Belgrade. The three players are Zoran Starcevic, Nikola Starcevic, and Zeljko Starcevic. They seem to be very active in central Europe. They are virtuosos of the highest proficiency. The video below is called Stampedo….
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Opera Doctors
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th August 2021Given the title of this site, I can’t explain why it took me so long to cover this subject. Below are 10 operas in which physicians appear. Their role in each opera ranges from important to miniscule. Dr Bartolo is in both Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. In the…
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Spontaneous Order
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th August 2021Everywhere we look we are surrounded by orderly systems that arose spontaneously and continue to operate in the same way. The universe, regardless of how it started, operates according to rules that no matter their complexity are knowable and fixed. The laws of physics are unchangeable; it’s our understanding of them that’s subject to alteration….
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Finale 30 – Luisa Miller Act 1
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th August 2021Luisa Miller was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples in 1849. It was Verdi’s 15th opera (if you count Jérusalem the rewrite of I Lombardi for Paris as a separate work). It didn’t reach the Met until 1929 when it had six performances extending into 1930. The cast was a grand one. It…
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Tenor Legends Celebrated Online in New La Scala Exhibition
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th August 2021The La Scala virtual exhibition described below in their announcement of the event is full of interesting material. It’s available with an English translation which has entertainment value of its own. It will only be available for a limited time. It’s a rewarding effort well worth the considerable time it takes to view and listen…
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The Greatest Musical Composition Ever – III
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd August 2021My exercise in hyperbolic analysis continues with Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (Op 123), specifically the Benedictus. Written between 1819-23, the mass was first performed in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1824. It’s part of the composer’s late period that produced a series of stupendous masterpieces such as the 9th Symphony, the Diabelli Variations. the Hammerklavier Sonata, and…
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