Mario Lanza has been dead for more than 60 years, yet with the passage of each one he seems to get even better. This is an excuse to post a few more of his recordings. What’s clear is the both the beauty of his voice and its ability to still resonate and move the listener….
Jonathan Tetelman is an American tenor (b 1988) who is making his presence felt at an increasing number of important opera venues. A schedule of his upcoming engagements is here. The tenor recently signed a recording contract with DGG and his first disc Arias has just been released. It’s very difficult to form an accurate…
My subject is Father Time. He’s undefeated and likely to remain so. Even Mother Nature cannot successfully handle Father Time. Time is very difficult to define. I’ll just say it’s what happens between then and now. Learnered volumes have been written about it. It’s very hard to say if it had a beginning or will…
If you listen to audiobooks, your choice has been mostly limited to Audible.Com. The book purveyor is owned by Amazon which seems in a race with China to possess the world. My money is on Amazon. Audible’s selection is very good and it’s not hard to find a good listen. The main problem is that…
The outstanding public intellectual, Heather Mac Donald has written a penetrating analysis of the current state of medical education, practice criteria, and organizational structure. Appropriately called the Corruption of Medicine, it details the horrible pit the profession has thrown itself into. Gone is first do no harm. In its place is the patient be damned…
I’ll start this one with the beginning rather than the end. Verdi’s 9th opera is one of his roughest. There’s a lot coarse music that nevertheless has a certain grainy impact. The title role is what keeps the opera around. Sam Ramey sang the role with astounding regularity. The work begins with a short prelude…