Category Archives: Opera
Selections From Un Ballo In Maschera
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th September 2025Verdi’s A Masked Ball has been both popular and in the standard operatic repertory since its premiere in 1859. The opera is virtually perfect; its composer was at the peak of his formidable powers. It has everything: great arias for high soprano, dramatic soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, and wonderful ensemble pieces. Though I’ve written about…
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The Catalog Aria From Don Giovanni
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th August 2025Don Giovanni needs no further praise from anyone; it is one of opera’s supreme masterpieces. It has been the subject of more interpretations than sin. Leporello, the Don’s put upon servant, is as interesting a character as is the Don. His Act 1 ‘Catalog Aria’ (Madamina, il catalogo è questo) is as famous as anything…
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Mario Chamlee
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th August 2025Every major opera company needs singers who, though they lack star power, can perform leading roles wth competence on a regular basis. They might not sell tickets, but when they’re on the bill with big attractions, they hold the show together and do so creditably and with some distinction. Mario Chamlee (1892-1966) was such a…
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Mikhail Alexandrovich
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd August 2025Latvian tenor Mikhail Alexandrovich (1914-2002) was another 20th century cantor who sang more than liturgical music. Some of the others were Yossele Rosenblatt, Joseph Schmidt, and Richard Tucker. Born in Bērzpils, Vitebsk to a very poor family, his extraordinary vocal gifts were recognized when he was six years old. In 1920 he was enrolled in…
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O Paradis! from L’Africaine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th July 2025L’Africaine was Giacomo Meyerbeer’s last opera. He started work on the project in 1852. Other activities, the unavailability of singers, and the death of his libretist Eugène Scribe delayed the completion of the opera. The full score was copied the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. But a performing version done by the composer would…
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Turandot – Three Endings
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th July 2025Puccini’s last opera, Turandot, was left unfinished at his death in 1924. There were notes about the composer’s plans for the conclusion of the work that was almost complete. All that was lacking was the final scene, during which Calaf (the Unknown Prince) and Turandot declare their love. He’s already done so, but she has…
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Lakmé
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th July 2025Clément Philibert Léo Delibes (1836-1891) was a French composer best known for his ballets Coppélia (1870) and Sylvia (1876), as well as the opera Lakmé (1883). While the opera is still performed in France, it is rarely done outside its native country. The Met has performed the work 63 times, but its last staging was in 1947. The opera contains…
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Una Voce Poco Fa
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th July 2025Rossini’s setting of the first of Beaumarchais’s Figaro trilogy, The Barber of Seville, is arguably the greatest comic opera ever written. Its zany zest, unparalleled mirth, overwhelming energy, and musical beauty and inventiveness place it in a spot occupied only by the Marx Brothers. The Count Almaviva is infatuated with Rosina, an heiress whom her…
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Around the World in 73 Years
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th June 2025Memory is a highly fallible record of the past. This divergence from fact to fancy increases with age and its attendant distance from the recalled event, as well as the fog and confabulation that the accumulation of years inevitably accrues. Despite these difficulties, I started recalling all the cities in which I had heard serious…
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Opera Massacres III – Verdi and Wagner
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th June 2025So many different outsiders have controlled Sicily that if an alien power were to conquer Earth, it would likely start on that island. Among the temporary rulers of the place are the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, the Muslims, the Normans, the Angevin French, the Bourbons, and now the…
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