Author Archives: Neil Kurtzman
On the Future of the Metropolitan Opera
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th June 2026I’ve touched on this topic several times before, but as the Met’s future becomes more uncertain every year, I thought a revisit would be worth a few minutes. Basically, there are only two types of problems that confront mankind and his institutions – money and craziness. Of course, the two are often joined as tightly…
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El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th May 2026The Met’s new production of Gabriela Lena Frank’s opera El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego was telecast today. It was the final show of the 25-26 series of broadcasts. The opera takes place on Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), November 2, 1957, the year of Diego Rivera’s death and three years…
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Ambrose Bierce
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th May 2026Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) was a unique writer and journalist. He is one of the strangest and most creative figures in American literature. Bierce’s life reads almost like one of his own stories. Born into a large, impoverished family in Meigs County, Ohio, on June 24, 1842, Bierce grew up with a profound distaste for his…
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Jerome Hines
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd May 2026Jerome Hines was one of the towering figures of twentieth-century American opera – literally and artistically. Standing more than six and a half feet tall, with a sonorous bass voice of exceptional power and clarity, Hines enjoyed one of the longest and most distinguished careers in the history of the Metropolitan Opera. Yet he was…
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Increasing Use of Nurse Practitioners
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th May 2026A recent article in the Wall Street Journal focuses on the increasing use of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) in filling patient care gaps in our medical system. There are now 461,000 NP active, an increase in 61% since 2019. They function in much the same way as do family practitioners; the same…
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Hantavirus – A Primer
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th May 2026The recent outbreak of Hantavirus infections aboard the Dutch expedition cruise ship MV Hondius, which had been sailing from Ushuaia through the South Atlantic toward the Canary Islands, combined with the painful memory of the COVID pandemic, has raised public awareness and fear to levels probably beyond the boundary of reality. Below are a few…
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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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Michael Tilson Thomas Dies
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th April 2026Conductor, composer, and educator Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) passed away on April 22, 2026, at age 81 at his San Francisco home, following a battle with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive brain cancer. As the San Francisco Symphony’s music director laureate, he was celebrated for his transformative 25-year tenure (1995–2020), which established the orchestra as a…
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