Monthly Archives: December 2023
Plagiarize
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th December 2023Plagiarism has become a hot button. The topic’s recent history is well-known to most people. I got the idea for this post from a source I will not acknowledge to remain constant with the subject’s tone. Tom Lehrer was a satirist who was popular a half-century or so back. One of his songs “Lobachevsky” was…
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Unfinished Operas
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th December 2023The usual reason an opera by a distinguished composer remains incomplete is death. Sometimes, however, the composer loses interest, or as in one of the examples below suffers from gargantuan writer’s block. A few examples of unfinished operas are presented here. A few are very well known, others barely a footnote. They are presented in…
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Maestro – Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th December 2023Bradley Cooper has made a movie based on the life of conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife the actress Felicia Montealegre. Cooper, who also co-wrote and directed the film, has taken the greatest pains to make the two protagonists seem identical to the duo they portray. Cooper has so gotten into the Bernstein character that…
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Error
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th December 2023She’s been my lifelong companion. Never left my side for a nanosecond. I’m using the feminine just by default. Like the supreme being, error and gender are as unrelated as ham and gefilte fish. She doesn’t just afflict humans or other animate objects – she suffuses the universe and her basic nature is more mysterious…
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Beverly Sills
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th December 2023Born Belle Miriam Silverman in 1929 in Brooklyn to immigrant parents she acquired the nickname “Bubbles” as a child. Its shadow stayed with her as a friendly reminder of her early days. She started singing when she was three and began vocal lessons at seven. She adopted her professional name Beverly Sills at nine. She…
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Florencia en el Amazonas in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th December 2023Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s opera was the Metropolitan Opera’s third HD telecast of this season. The work was first performed by the Houston Grand Opera in 1996. This run is Florencia’s first appearance at the Met. Much has been made over two features of the opera neither of which has any bearing on its artistic…
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The Meaning of Life
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th December 2023Humans, at least since the time of the ancient Israelites, and the Greeks more than 2000 years ago, have tried to figure out why we are here and what is our purpose in the vast Cosmos we inhabit seemingly with the significance of a single photon in the Milky Way. Well, after a life approaching…
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Social Justice Fallacies – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th December 2023I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy. Richard Feynman Thomas Sowell has been one of America’s greatest public intellectuals for over a half-century. During that span, he has published 48 books. His latest, written at age 93, is Social Justice Fallacies. He didn’t start life behind…
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