Monthly Archives: October 2023
Justin Peck – Choreographer
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st October 2023Opera and Ballet have a lot in common. Both are performing arts typically presented in a theater with an orchestral accompaniment. They both typically tell stories and have sets and costumes. Yet modern opera struggles to survive while new ballets thrive. The disparity is easily explained. Opera, obviously, has both music and words, but the…
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Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis.
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th October 2023Transthyretin amyloidosis, also called ATTR amyloidosis, is a progressive and fatal disease that affects multiple organs. It comes in two versions – genetic and wild (spontaneous and not hereditary). ATTR Amyloidosis is caused by the accumulation of a genetically variant form or even the normal form of the protein, transthyretin, into amyloid fibrils. Transthyretin is…
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Dead Man Walking in HD – Another Technical Screwup
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st October 2023The Met’s first HD telecast of this season ended with a whimper – a dead screen and no sound. The transmission stopped when the murderer De Rocher was strapped to a gurney and was being executed. After that nothing. No reprise of the hymn-like song sung by Sister Helen, no applause, no curtain calls, no…
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Salvatore Fisichella
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th October 2023Salvatore Fisichella was born in 1943 in Catania Sicily to a noble family distinguished in diplomacy, jurisprudence, philosophy, and theology since the 17th century. He was opera’s leading bel canto tenor for the last 30 years of the last century and into the first few years of the 21st century. Known for the elegance of his singing as well…
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Simon Boccanegra – The Council Chamber Scene
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th October 2023Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra was first performed in 1857. It achieved a very modest success. Verdi thought about revising it for many years. With Arrigo Boito as his librettist, he finished a major overhaul of the work in 1881. Boito’s work on the revised libretto was a test drive for his suitability as Verdi’s collaborator on…
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Giuseppe Verdi – 210th Birthday
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th October 2023Giuseppe Verdi was born October 9th (or 10th) 1813. Starting with the appearance of his third opera Nabucco in 1842 he has been the most popular of operatic composers. At first musical scholars were divided as to his artistic worth. Some thought him a popularizer who was not close to the artistic merit of Richard…
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Joseph Bologne
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th October 2023On October 20 the Lubbock Chamber Orchestra will present a program that includes Joseph Bologne’s Symphony #2. Bologne, whose full name is Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George (1745-99) had a unique and fascinating life. Joseph’s father Georges, whose life was also full of incident, was a planter on the island of Guadeloupe. His mother Ninon…
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Capital Punishment
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd October 2023Jake Hegee’s opera Dead Man Walking opened the Met Opera’s new season last week. It’s based on a book of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean. Sister Helen is an ardent opponent of the death penalty. Though opposition to capital punishment is not a feature of Hegee’s opera its depiction of it and Sister…
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