Monthly Archives: September 2023
Dead Man Walking Opens Met 2023-24 Season
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th September 2023Jake Hegee’s first (of 10) operas opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2023-24 season tonight. It was the first time the company presented the opera which has had numerous stagings worldwide. The performance was broadcast over the Met’s Sirius channel. It will open the season’s HD series on Oct 21. Dead Man Walking started as a memoir…
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La Battaglia Di Legnano – La Scala 1961
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th September 2023Verdi’s 14th opera is rarely done. Ten years ago, I reviewed Parma’s DVD of the work published as part of its cycle of all the composer’s operas. The Met has never done Battaglia while La Scala has only mounted it twice – in 1916 and in 1961. The latter show had an all-star cast with…
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Wagner’s Operas and Medical Education
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd September 2023Are Richard Wagner’s operas a potential tool to teach medical students and young doctors humanities? is the title of a paper published by Gunter Wolf a member of the Department of Internal Medicine III, University Hospital Jena. He is also an expert on the operas of Wagner. The abstract of the paper is below. At…
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Novak Djokovic For CDC Director
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th September 2023As anyone semi-sentient knows the great Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has won more Grand Slam tennis tournaments than any male player in history. He might have won two more had he not been denied entry to Australia and the US last year because he refused to take the COVID vaccine and thus was unable…
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A Few Thoughts about Artificial Intelligence
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th September 2023AI is on the lips of just about everyone, including those who don’t know what the two letters stand for. Many seem to share the concern of the philosopher Nick Bostrom that we may create AI systems that will be so powerful and so much smarter than we are that they will take over the…
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Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th September 2023Sergei Prokoviev (1891- 1953) was one of the great composers and pianists of the last century. Accordingly, he wrote much music for piano which he frequently performed as soloist. Of his five concertos for piano and orchestra, none is more challenging than #2 in G minor. The concerto has a convoluted history. The composer started…
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SenatorMcConnell’s Medical Condition
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd September 2023A diplomat has been described as a person sent abroad by his government to lie for his country; the mission of a political doctor is very closely related. By political doctor I mean a physician charged with the care of a government official or a group of them. Dr Brian Monahan is the capital physician….
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