Category Archives: Opera
Fire Shut Up In My Bones in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd October 2021I’ll get the bad news out of the way first. In a repeat of the 2014 telecast of Werther featuring Jonas Kaufmann, the signal from the Met’s broadcast of Fire Shut Up In My Bones was lost at the opera’s climax and did not return until the middle of the curtain calls. I was told…
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Met Opera Cancels Next 100 Seasons
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th October 2021Metropolitan Opera general Manager Peter Gelb announced that following this season the venerable company will take a century long sabbatical. The not unexpected action followed Anthony Tommasini’s likening of the current run of Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Puccini’s final opera Turandot to “anti-asian” hostility. Mr Tommasini, music critic for the New York Times, has pointed…
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Boris Godunov in HD – 2021
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th October 2021The Met in HD series returned after an absence of more than a year and half. Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov was previously telecast by the Met in October 2010. German Bass René Pape then and now assumed the title role. This time around the Met decided to stage the composer’s original seven scene version of the…
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Michael Spyres Baritenor – Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th September 2021American tenor Michael Spyres has released a new album – Baritenor. It contains 18 selections which are presented in approximately the order in which they were written. They consist of arias composed for tenor, tenor or high baritone, and baritone. Spyres has always shown a unique ability to adjust the character of his timbre; he…
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Opera Villains
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th September 2021Here are 11 opera villains – nine from Italian operas (Mozart’s an honorary Italian), the remaining two from Russian works. In making these choices I’ve excluded supernatural characters like the various depictions of the devil. I’ve also disregarded all German operas as it’s too hard to tell the villains from the heroes. The most prominent…
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Marcel Wittrisch
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 24th August 2021Marcel Wittrisch (1901-55) was born to a German family in Antwerp, Belgium. He studied voice in Munich, Leipzig, and Milan. His operatic debut was in Halle in 1925. His career was based in Berlin. He started as a lyric tenor with a voice whose timbre was also well suited for operetta. As his career progressed…
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Opera Doctors
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th August 2021Given the title of this site, I can’t explain why it took me so long to cover this subject. Below are 10 operas in which physicians appear. Their role in each opera ranges from important to miniscule. Dr Bartolo is in both Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. In the…
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Finale 30 – Luisa Miller Act 1
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th August 2021Luisa Miller was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples in 1849. It was Verdi’s 15th opera (if you count Jérusalem the rewrite of I Lombardi for Paris as a separate work). It didn’t reach the Met until 1929 when it had six performances extending into 1930. The cast was a grand one. It…
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Tenor Legends Celebrated Online in New La Scala Exhibition
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th August 2021The La Scala virtual exhibition described below in their announcement of the event is full of interesting material. It’s available with an English translation which has entertainment value of its own. It will only be available for a limited time. It’s a rewarding effort well worth the considerable time it takes to view and listen…
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If You Dance With the Devil You Can’t Change Partners
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th July 2021Devils are common in opera. It’s so much more fun to be evil onstage than to be tasked with depicting bland goodness. So here are a few operatic Satans or their equivalents, but not the usual suspects. Anton Rubinstein’s opera Demon is rarely preformed in the West, but still enjoys popularity in Russia. The titular…
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