Author Archives: Neil Kurtzman
La Rondine in HD – 2024
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th April 2024Today’s HD telecast of Puccini’s afternoon off – La Rondine – was a repeat of the production of 2009 but with a different cast. The composer’s attempt to write an Italian opera vaguely in the style of a Viennese operetta contains a lot of beautiful music in the service of a work that’s not close…
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LSO Performs Mahler’s Symphony #2
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th April 2024Mahler’s Second Symphony, The Resurrection Symphony, is one of the great works of Western Art. Titanic in its scale and overwhelming in its inspiration the demands it makes on a symphony orchestra are beyond formidable. Its stature is unsurpassed in the orchestral literature. Last night the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra performed the work in the First…
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Aprile Millo
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th April 2024Aprille Millo (b 1958) is an American soprano who became famous in her twenties. She appeared 161 times at the Met between 1984 and 2007. She was at her vocal peak between 1986 and 1996. Thereafter her appearances at the Met decreased until until she stopped singing with the company before she was 50. She…
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Golden Days – Mario Lanza
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th April 2024The title above is that of a new CD containing 23 selections sung by the late tenor. Why another Lanza disc when so many are already available? These have been remastered and converted to Digitally Extracted Stereo (DES). When listened to on a good audio system the effect is magical. Lanza’s voice is even more…
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Screening for Colon Cancer in Older Adults
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th April 2024Screening for disease is not as straightforward as it may seem on cursory examination. Sometimes it does not influence the course of the screened for disease and other times it may cause more harm than good as early intervention may result in more morbidity than if the disease had been undiagnosed. Then there is the…
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Carlo Bergonzi
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd April 2024Carlo Bergonzi (1924-2014) enjoyed a long career as a leading tenor with all of the world’s major opera companies. He was born in Polesine Parmense near Parma. During World War II he was an active anti-Nazi and in 1943 was imprisoned by the Germans. After being released by the Russians he walked over 100 km…
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Roméo et Juliette in HD 2024
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th March 2024I couldn’t get to the live broadcast of this opera last Saturday. Accordingly, I went to the encore presentation today. Bart Sher’s production of Gounod’s opera was telecast by the Met in 2017. In my review of this staging, I said this: “This production, by Bartlett Sher, is new to the Met though its origin…
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FDA Approves First Treatment for NASH
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th March 2024Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an advanced form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is caused by a buildup of fat in the liver and is the most common form of liver disease in the United States. It affects patients who drink little to no alcohol. The fatty deposits occur when the liver can no…
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Stroke Risk After COVID-19 Vaccination Among Older Adults
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd March 2024Stroke Risk After COVID-19 Bivalent Vaccination Among US Older Adults is a study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It examined the risk of stroke in a time period immediately after administration of either brand of a COVID-19 bivalent vaccine compared with a later time period among adults aged 65 years…
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Benjamin Bernheim – Boulevard des Italiens
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th March 2024Boulevard des Italiens is the title of French tenor Benjamin Bernheim’s second CD. Released in 2022 it offers 16 selections. The recital presents arias and one duet written by Italian composers to French texts or subsequently adapted to French texts for performances in France. Bernheim was born in Paris and grew up in Geneva. Before…
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