Monthly Archives: April 2025
Franco Corelli Interview
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th April 2025The video below is an interview with Franco Corelli (1921-2003) made around 1990. It’s in Italian, but it has English subtitles. The interviewer is not the most facile; nevertheless, Corelli’s comments are very interesting. Besides being on the short list of the greatest tenors of the last century, he was a sensitive and intelligent commentator…
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Le Nozze di Figaro in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th April 2025Mozart’s comic opera based on the second of Beaumarchais’s Figaro trilogy is one of opera’s most popular works and is often placed at or near the top of the list of the genre’s best works. The 29 year old composer wrote the opera for Vienna to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. Da Ponte managed…
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Mario Del Monaco in Recital
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd April 2025Mario Del Monaco (1915-1985) was the great Italian dramatic tenor of the last century. The dramatic tenor is a rare specimen. He is distinguished from the spinto tenor by the baritonal timbre of his sound combined with powerful high notes reaching to C5. It is the voice Verdi had in mind when he wrote Otello….
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Cancer Risk and Computed Tomography Imaging
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th April 2025Projected Lifetime Cancer Risks From Current Computed Tomography Imaging is a study just published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study concludes: “That at current utilization and radiation dose levels, CT examinations in 2023 were projected to result in approximately 103,000 future cancers over the course of the lifetime of exposed patients. If current practices persist,…
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On Democracies and Death Cults – Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th April 2025Douglas Murray has written an analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict that focuses on the war in Gaza as a starting point. As the title suggests, he believes the struggle is between a society committed to life and another that views death and martyrdom as the ultimate achievement of existence. The slender volume, it contains less…
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Maria Caniglia
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th April 2025Maria Caniglia (1905-1979) was a spinto soprano who sang at many of the major opera houses, though her career was mainly in Italy. She was a regular performer at La Scala and then at the Rome Opera House. She opened the 1938 Met season as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello. After 14 performances during the 38-39…
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The Vulture Strikes Again
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th April 2025We’ve been traveling for the last two weeks and therefore haven’t been posting anything. Regular articles will now resume. The description below depicts our long journey home. I’ve written several times about the parlous state of air travel in the United States, but nothing since the COVID meltdown. The reason is simple. I’ve avoided the…
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