Category Archives: Opera
Fedora in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th January 2023Umberto Giordano’s minor league opera Fedora was brought back to the Met after an absence of 25 years. The main reason for its reappearance, as far as I could, tell was to add novelty without the aural pain that the Met’s commitment to new operas has recently inflicted on its audience and box office. If…
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Finale 36 – Act II La Rondine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st December 2022La Rondine (The Swallow) is the 8th of Puccini’s 12 operas. It is the least performed of his mature works. It was commissioned in 1913 by Vienna’s Carltheater. They wanted a lighter and more entertaining opera in the style of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. The result was more in the style of Lehar with touches of…
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LSO 2022 Madama Butterfly Photos
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th December 2022On November 11th of this year, the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra presented a semi-staged performance of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. The cast is below. The link will lead you to a collection of photos I took during the dress rehearsal the day before the performance. Click on the thumbnails to see the whole photo. The picture above…
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The Hours in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th December 2022The Metropolitan Opera telecast Kevin Puts new opera The Hours around the world this afternoon. The company gave the work its world premiere last month. The libretto by Greg Pierce is based on the novel by Michael Cunningham and the subsequent film. It depicts a day in the life of three desperately unhappy women -the…
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Signor Gaetano – Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th December 2022Signor Gaetano is the title of tenor Javier Camarena’s latest CD release. It is entirely devoted to the music of Gaetano Donizetti, hence the title. Gli Originali is conducted by Riccardo Frizza who is the musical director director of the Donizetti Festival in the composer’s hometown of Bergamo. The recording took place at the Teatro…
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A Few Opera Riots
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th November 2022The most fully realized riot in all opera is the one that ends the second act of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. It’s a gigantic free for all involving everyone in the neighborhood including nine of the meistersingers. Beckmesser starts a serenade full of errors that are marked by Hans Sachs striking his cobbler’s hammer. “David wakes…
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Madama Butterfly Powerpoint Presentation
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th November 2022Below is a link that will download a PowerPoint presentation I gave before last night’s performances of Madama Butterfly by the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. To use it download all the files and put them in the same folder. To hear the sound excerpts click on the sound icon on the slides that are associated with music. They are…
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La Traviata in HD – 2022
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th November 2022Verdi’s “poor sinner” was on the Met’s HD roster for an unprecedented fourth time today. Michael Mayer’s overstuffed production remains a motley melange of confused early to mid 19th century costumes speckled across a unitary set. But nobody goes to La Traviata because of the sets and costumes. It’s Verdi’s glorious and emotionally apposite music…
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Melody-2
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th October 2022Ask any professor of musical composition about what can be taught and he’ll tell you anything, with the notable exception of melody. The ability to consistently write great melodies is a gift capriciously bestowed that cannot be shared. Even defining what makes a melody great defies analysis. The brain seems hardwired to respond to melodies…
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Medea in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd October 2022Cherubini’s semi extinct opera was televised across the globe for the first (and likely the last) time today. The opera owes its persistence to Maria Callas who performed the title role often during the 50s and early 60s. The part has a deserved reputation for difficulty, though there are many soprano roles just as demanding…
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