Monthly Archives: September 2026
Verdi’s Macbeth Opens Met Season
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd September 2026A new production of Verdi’s first Shakespeare based opera opened the 26-27 season last night. The cast was headed by Quinn Kelsey and Lise Davidsen. Obviously I’ll have to wait until Oct 17 to see the production as it is the second opera of this season’s Met in HD series. The performance was broadcast on…
› Read the full entry
Schumpeter and Amazon – Coming and Going
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th September 2026The Austrian-American economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) is famous for his use of the concept of Creative Destruction. It describes how capitalism advances: new products, technologies, and business methods displace established ones. The innovations that create wealth and improve productivity also destroy older businesses and jobs. For Schumpeter, this continual upheaval was the central engine of…
› Read the full entry
French Operas By Italian Composers
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th September 2026Paris was the center of Western Culture in the 19th century. It was for this reason that Italian composers were eager to write new works for the city’s major theaters. Many of the important composers of that era were fluent in French making the task of writing a “French” opera relatively easy. Here are four…
› Read the full entry
The Verdi Requiem – 2026
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th September 2026The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra will perform the Verdi Requiem at the Buddy Holly Hall on Oct 15. Tickets may be purchased here. Below are the program notes I wrote for the concert. Pianse ed amò per tutti (He wept and loved for everyone)Gabriele D’AnnunzioOn the occasion of Verdi’s death D’Annunzio (a poet and playwright) understood…
› Read the full entry
Hormone replacement therapy and dementia risk among postmenopausal women
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th September 2026Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th September 2026 Hormone replacement therapy and dementia risk among postmenopausal women: Identifying responsive subgroups in the UK Biobank is a study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. This large observational study found that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was associated with a modestly lower hazard…
› Read the full entry
The Rigoletto Quartet
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 1st September 2026Rigoletto was Verdi’s seventeenth opera. Julian Budden, author of the definitive three-volume study of Verdi’s operas, compares Rigoletto’s place in Verdi’s development with that of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. The opera marks the beginning of Verdi’s mature period, in which nearly every subsequent work would be a masterpiece. As Benjamin Britten remarked, “Verdi seemed to have…
› Read the full entry
