Tag

La Scala

La Battaglia Di Legnano – La Scala 1961

September 24, 2023

Verdi’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 […]

Finale 32 – I Vespri Siciliani Act 3

February 14, 2022

Verdi’s The Sicilian Vespers was written to a French text by Eugene Scribe – Les vêpres siciliennes. It first appeared at the Paris Opera in 1855. Its French iteration was unsuccessful and it disappeared from France, and most of the rest of the operatic world, until fairly recently. In its Italian form is was more […]

Opening Night at the Temple of Doom

December 10, 2013

Opera News ran an article in 1999 entitled La Scala: Temple of Music or Temple of Doom? One should not be surprised that Italy’s leading opera house is fraught with turmoil – consider the country and the art form. Last Saturday (December 7) The house opened its season with Verdi’s La Traviata. What could go […]

Aureliano Pertile

December 12, 2009

Aureliano Pertile was born in 1885 in Montagnana near Padua. Interestingly, Giovanni Martinelli was born in the same town in the same year. Pertile’s career was mainly based at La Scala where he had the reputation as Toscanini’s favorite tenor, though the great maestro did not ask him to sing at the prima of Turandot. […]

About the Editor

Neil Kurtzman

Physician. Professor. Writer.

Neil A Kurtzman MD is the Grover E Murray Professor Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Internal Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. He has combined careers in clinical medicine, education, basic research, and administration for more than 40 years.