Monthly Archives: July 2025
O Paradis! from L’Africaine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th July 2025L’Africaine was Giacomo Meyerbeer’s last opera. He started work on the project in 1852. Other activities, the unavailability of singers, and the death of his libretist Eugène Scribe delayed the completion of the opera. The full score was copied the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. But a performing version done by the composer would…
› Read the full entry
Mammography in Elderly Women
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th July 2025I’ve written several articles about the difficulties inherent in screening for diseases that are common and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The two most prominent are breast cancer and prostate cancer. Both have screening tests that are widely used, but the public and many physicians seem to be unaware of their limitations. Overdiagnosis is…
› Read the full entry
Heart Disease Mortality Declines
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th July 2025Heart Disease Mortality in the United States, 1970 to 2022 is a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. “From 1970 to 2022, overall age‐adjusted heart disease mortality decreased by 66% from 1970 to 2022 (from 761 to 258 per 100 000). In 1970, 91% of all heart disease deaths were ischemic, declining…
› Read the full entry
President Trump’s Aspirin Treatment
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd July 2025The recent reports regarding President Trump’s swollen ankles and hand bruising mentioned that he is taking aspirin. His press secretary said, “This is consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen.” This statement may have been true 10…
› Read the full entry
Turandot – Three Endings
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th July 2025Puccini’s last opera, Turandot, was left unfinished at his death in 1924. There were notes about the composer’s plans for the conclusion of the work that was almost complete. All that was lacking was the final scene, during which Calaf (the Unknown Prince) and Turandot declare their love. He’s already done so, but she has…
› Read the full entry
The Mozart Requiem
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th July 2025Mozart’s last composition, his Requiem Mass K 626, was left incomplete when he died on December 5, 1791. It was finished by the composer’s student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr. The extent to which he relied on notes left by Mozart is uncertain. Süssmayr’s other compositions are rarely performed and do not reach the level of his…
› Read the full entry
Lakmé
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th July 2025Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (1836-1891) was a French composer best known for his ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876), as well as the opera Lakmé (1883). While the opera is still performed in France, it is rarely done outside its native country. The Met has performed the work 63 times, but its last staging was in 1947. The opera contains…
› Read the full entry
Una Voce Poco Fa
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th July 2025Rossini’s setting of the first of Beaumarchais’s Figaro trilogy, The Barber of Seville, is arguably the greatest comic opera ever written. Its zany zest, unparalleled mirth, overwhelming energy, and musical beauty and inventiveness place it in a spot occupied only by the Marx Brothers. The Count Almaviva is infatuated with Rosina, an heiress whom her…
› Read the full entry
The Age of Diagnosis – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 1st July 2025A British neurologist has written The Age of Diagnosis – How our obsession with medical labels is making us sicker. Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan’s book is divided into a prologue, an introduction, six chapters, and a conclusion. Each chapter deals with a specific disease or diagnostic category that suffers from the unintended consequences of overdiagnosis. This…
› Read the full entry
