Monthly Archives: August 2024
Music as an Art – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th August 2024Sir Roger Scruton (1944-2020) was an English philosopher and polymath. His knowledge of music was deep and wide. He wrote two operas and one libretto. He could analyze a musical composition down to its most granular detail. The book discussed here was one of his last (published in 2018) and has an odd title. Writing…
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Great American Composers – George Gershwin
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th August 2024I’m going to write a series of short articles on some of America’s great composers. I’ll start with the greatest – George Gershwin (1898-1937). Someone said were it not for his death from a brain tumor at age 38 that he’d have become the American Verdi. I think that if anything this assessment is an…
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Puccini’s Edgar – Not Even a Cigarillo
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd August 2024Puccini’s second opera Edgar (accent on the second syllable) was first performed at La Scala in 1889. It was adapted from a verse play by Alfred de Musset. Set in 14th century Flanders it describes the contrast between the saintly and virginal Fidelia and the wildly sensual Tigrana. Not surprisingly Tigrana lights the passion fires…
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Giulietta Simionato
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th August 2024Giulietta Simionato (1910-2010) was one of the greatest singers of the middle of the last century. Born in Forlì, Romagna, she studied in Rovigo, and then in Padua. Though she made her stage debut in 1927 while still a teenager she gradually progressed up the ladder of Italian theaters until she made it to the…
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Le Villi – The Emergence of a Genius
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th August 2024Puccini’s first work for the stage was Le Villi (best translated as The Fairies). It is based on the same story as Adam’s ballet Giselle. Puccini’s opera, with dancing, takes little more than an hour. It is a slender work with only three characters – Gulielmo the head forester, Anna his daughter, and Roberto her…
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The Olympic Boxers and 5-alpha reductase Deficiency
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th August 2024You may have heard of the controversy involving two boxers competing in the female division of the sport in the Paris Olympics. The issue causing the furor is whether the competitors are really female. The press reports state that previous testing has shown that the two have XY chromosomes and high levels of testosterone. They…
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The Grave Diggers – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th August 2024The Weimar Republic governed Germany as a constitutional federal republic from the end of World War I until March 23, 1933, when the country officially became a one-party dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler. It effectively ended on January 30 of that year when the president of the republic (Paul von Hindenburg) appointed Hitler…
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