Category Archives: Opera
Finale 39 – Benvenuto Cellini
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th November 2023Hector Berlioz was among the most innovative and original of all the great composers. His first opera loosely based on an episode from the Renaissance artist’s memoirs was written in 1838. It sounds like nothing that preceded it. The music moves like the molten metal that is used to cast Cellini’s famous statue of Perseus…
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Finale 38 – Dialogues des Carmélites
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st November 2023Dialogues des Carmélites (Dialogues of the Carmelites) is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Francis Poulenc. It is the story of the Martyrs of Compiègne, Carmelite nuns who, in 1794 during the closing days of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, were guillotined in Paris for refusing to renounce…
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Malcolm X in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th November 2023X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X was telecast today. As a piece of sophisticated parochialism it will grip the hearts of Upper West Side New Yorkers who regularly attend the Met. If you seek a work for the lyric theater that touches a spark common to all men you will not find it…
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Florencia en el Amazonas – Initial Impresssion
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th November 2023Last night the Met presented its first performance of the late Daniel Catán’s opera Florencia en el Amazonas. It takes place on a boat traveling down the Amazon to Manaus. Florencia is a legendary opera singer who’s lost her lover. I will have to wait for the telecast to comment on its staging so my…
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Dead Man Walking in HD – Another Technical Screwup
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st October 2023The Met’s first HD telecast of this season ended with a whimper – actually a dead screen and no sound. The transmission stopped when the murderer De Rocher was strapped to a gurney and was being executed. After that nothing. No reprise of the hymn-like song sung by Sister Helen, no applause, no curtain calls,…
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Salvatore Fisichella
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th October 2023Salvatore Fisichella was born in 1943 in Catania Sicily to a noble family distinguished in diplomacy, jurisprudence, philosophy, and theology since the 17th century. He was opera’s leading bel canto tenor for the last 30 years of the last century and into the first few years of the 21st century. Known for the elegance of his singing as well…
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Simon Boccanegra – The Council Chamber Scene
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th October 2023Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra was first performed in 1857. It achieved a very modest success. Verdi thought about revising it for many years. With Arrigo Boito as his librettist, he finished a major overhaul of the work in 1881. Boito’s work on the revised libretto was a test drive for his suitability as Verdi’s collaborator on…
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Giuseppe Verdi – 210th Birthday
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th October 2023Giuseppe Verdi was born October 9th (or 10th) 1813. Starting with the appearance of his third opera Nabucco in 1842 he has been the most popular of operatic composers. At first musical scholars were divided as to his artistic worth. Some thought him a popularizer who was not close to the artistic merit of Richard…
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Dead Man Walking Opens Met 2023-24 Season
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th September 2023Jake Hegee’s first (of 10) operas opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2023-24 season tonight. It was the first time the company presented the opera which has had numerous stagings worldwide. The performance was broadcast over the Met’s Sirius channel. It will open the season’s HD series on Oct 21. Dead Man Walking started as a memoir…
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La Battaglia Di Legnano – La Scala 1961
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th September 2023Verdi’s 14th opera is rarely done. Ten years ago, I reviewed Parma’s DVD of the work published as part of its cycle of all the composer’s operas. The Met has never done Battaglia while La Scala has only mounted it twice – in 1916 and in 1961. The latter show had an all-star cast with…
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