Medicine & Opera

Articles, page 58

The 10 Best Tenors of the 20th century – Part 2

September 4, 2017

When I published my choices for the 10 best tenors of the 20th century I admitted that my picks were entirely subjective. Many readers had different thoughts as to who should be on such a list. I fully realized that if I made up the list on another day that it would be different. So, […]

How Go Completely Crazy in 25 Easy Steps

August 27, 2017

The first thing to accept is that you don’t have to do anything crazy to go completely crazy – a series of rational small steps will get you there. A to B seems at least OK. The same with B to C, all the way to Z. Twenty five rational, or semi-rational, steps and you’re […]

La damnation de Faust at the Proms

August 22, 2017

On August 8, this year John Eliot Gardiner directed the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in a performance of Berlioz’ La damnation de Faust for the BBC Proms. The soloists were Ann Hallenberg, Michael Spyres, and bass Laurent Naouri. The great choral part was sung by The Monteverdi Choir and the National Youth Choir of Scotland. Berlioz […]

Alida Ferrarini

August 19, 2017

Alida Ferrarini (1946-2013) was a soprano who specialized in the lighter roles of the operatic repertory. Gilda, Adina, and Michaela were perfect fits for her voice. She also sang baroque and 18th century roles. She sang in San Francisco, but otherwise limited her performances to Europe. She may be best known for her singing of […]

Bernardo De Muro

August 13, 2017

Last month’s Opera News contains a review of Rome’s new production of Giordano’s Andrea Chenier. Here’s its first sentence: “In the first half of the twentieth century, Andrea Chenier was one of the most frequently staged works at Rome Opera, with tenors of the caliber of De Muro, Gigli, Lauri-Volpi, and Pertile alternating in the […]

Si Pel Ciel – Otello Act 2

August 5, 2017

Verdi’s penultimate opera is a masterpiece of dramatic cohesion and inspiration. Set to one of opera’s greatest librettos, it reflects all that its composer had learned from a life spent in the the theater. The duet, ‘Si pel ciel’, that ends the second act is as rousing as anything Verdi had written 40 years earlier, […]

Finale 16 – Don Giovanni Act 2

July 31, 2017

Mozart’s seminal opera connects to audiences on many levels. To some, like GB Shaw, it is the acme of western art. The finale of the opera is one of the lyric stage’s most compelling creations. The opera’s last number is an epilogue. It was omitted in the opera’s Vienna premiere and from all of the […]

Random Thoughts on Addiction, the Stock Market, and Gerbils on a Wheel

July 30, 2017

Having changed the definition of sex, gender, marriage, pronouns, speech, health, victory, defeat, money, bullying, poverty, success, dress, fake news, children, and height, I thought a few ruminations on smoking, addiction, and whatever free association could bring to mind might fill a few paragraphs. On Friday July 28 the FDA announced a comprehensive regulatory plan […]

Don’t Look Back

July 26, 2017

The most poorly managed institution in modern western society is the hospital. I say this after half a century of steady exposure to hospitals of all sorts. I was a student, resident, fellow, staff member, section chief, department chair, chief of staff, and even a patient. Inertia at all levels was unconquerable. Newton’s first law […]

The 10 Best Mezzo-Sopranos of the 20th Century

July 21, 2017

It was really hard to pick 10 mezzos. There were so many great singers of this range in the 20th century that I’m sure that if I picked just 10 a week from now, the list would be different. So this ranking not only reflects personal taste and opinion, but it also is conditional. Feel […]

Antonina Nezhdanova

July 11, 2017

Antonina Nezhdanova (1873-1950) was a Ukrainian soprano who made her career in the last years of Imperial Russia and then continued after the 1917 revolution as a singer and teacher in the Soviet Union. She was the greatest Russian soprano of her era. She had a high lyric voice which negotiated all the obstacles of […]

The Charlie Gard Case

July 7, 2017

By now almost everyone has heard of the the Charlie Gard case. The issue at its core is much simpler than any of the accounts that I have read of the plight of this child and his family. Medically the case is straightforward. The child suffers from a rare metabolic defect that has destroyed all […]

Adolf von Henselt

July 4, 2017

Adolf von Henselt (1814-89) was a German composer and virtuoso pianist. A native of Schwabach in Munich, he went to Vienna to study under Hummel. He soon became a noted piano soloist. He was famous for his cantabile and legato playing. Even Liszt admired his playing. He also composed. Most of his compositions were for […]

The Opioid Epidemic

June 30, 2017

There seems to be no end of mischief that the government can do when it plunges into the quicksand of American medicine. Let’s consider the opioid epidemic. It appears that deaths from opioid overdose have sharply increased in this country. Let’s also grant that this surge in deaths is exactly the way it’s portrayed in […]

Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk – Orchestral Excerpts

June 24, 2017

Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is the greatest Russian opera of the 20th century and among all Russian operas is matched only by Boris Godunov. Set to a libretto by the composer and Alexander Preys, it depicts the brutality of mid 19th century Russian life and the plight of women enmeshed in a […]

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