Monthly Archives: May 2026
The Berlioz Revolution
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th May 2026No composer embodied the 19th-century romantic movement as did Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). Everything about him seemed excessive: his passions, his literary imagination, his orchestral ambitions, his loves, hatreds, and disappointments. He was one of the great revolutionaries of nineteenth-century music, yet during much of his life he was misunderstood in his own country and forced…
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More on Capecchi and E Sogno
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th May 2026I’ve previously written about both Renato Capecchi and Ford’s aria from Verdi’s Falstaff. But I came across some material that was so good that I decided to revisit both the baritone and the aria. In 1961, he appeared as Ford in a Naples production of Verdi’s valedictory opera. The cast was remarkable for its all-around…
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Eugene Onegin
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd May 2026I was unable to get to the theater today to catch the live in HD transmission of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. I’ll go to the encore presentation next week and post a full review then. I was able to listen to the audio broadcast of the opera. Here are a few thoughts based on an audio…
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