Category Archives: Uncategorized
Latest Doing Nothing Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th June 2012The following brief review was published in the Midwest Book: You can learn alot about something, just not in the ways you suspect. “Doing Nothing” is a novel from Neil Kurtzman as he presents the tale of the education of Richard Grollman in Medical school, and the madness he encounters as a resident and student…
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st May 2012Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau, who died May 18, was a unique performer. In a very long career he managed to sing and record almost anything that a classically trained baritone could possibly sing. While best known as the foremost interpreter of German art songs he appeared almost as often in the opera house as in the concert hall. The facts…
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dead at 86
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th May 2012The great baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012) died Friday, May 18 at age 86. I’ll have a longer post about this great artist in a short while. Here is his interpretation of a work by a composer who was likely closest to his heart – Franz Schubert. Der Erlkönig, written when the composer was 18 years…
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La Traviata in HD – The Rerun
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd May 2012Unable to attend the live telecast of the Met’s performance of La Traviata, I went to the replay on May 2, 2012. The production was first staged by German director Willy Decker last season. Decker sets the action in an indeterminate (but approximately modern) time on a mostly empty stage rimmed by a semicircular wall. There’s some pretty…
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All of Jussi Björling’s Commercial Recordings on the Web
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd April 2012New posts will resume next month. In the meanwhile visit this site which contains all of the solo commercial recordings made by the great Swedish tenor. There are a few excerpts with other singers, but most of the material is solo.
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Better Human Beings
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd March 2012“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”–Immanuel Kant President Obama’s choice to be the next President of the World Bank is Dartmouth President Dr. Jim Yong Kim. Dr Kim is a physician who is fond of quoting his predecessor at Dartmouth John Sloan Dickey: “The world’s troubles are your…
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The Photographs of Robert Cahen – Simon Boccanegra in LA
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th February 2012The following photographs of Placido Domingo and Ana Maria Martinez were taken by Robert Cahen on February 5, 2012. The occasion was a dress rehearsal of the Los Angeles Opera’s staging of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. The production is from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
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Medical Economics – Two Vignettes
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th February 2012Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. Daniel Patrick Moynihan Government provided or mandated medical care appears ready to bankrupt the civilized world. Here are two examples of the mess we’ve created in an effort to make life better. First contraception. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the most oxymoronic name…
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La Traviata in Lubbock
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th February 2012The Lubbock Symphony Orchestra will present two concert performances of Verdi’s opera on March 2 and 3. Amanda Hall is Verdi’s noble courtesan, Tenor Scott Ramsay is her overwrought lover Alfredo, and baritone Ashley Prewett is his father Germont. Thomasz Golka will conduct the LSO and the Lubbock Civic Chorale.
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Symphonies with Quiet Endings
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th January 2012Beethoven set the standard for boffo , exuberant, and loud symphonic endings, After him most composers followed his example most of the time. But not always. I picked four examples of great symphonies that end softly. I’ll take them in chronological order. Brahms’ third symphony written in 1883 has a lot of vigorous music in its last…
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