Tag Archives: Mozart
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…
› Read the full entry
Lubbock Chamber Orchestra – Ladder to the Moon
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th August 2025The LCO will present the three works described below at its inaugural concert of the season, scheduled for September 19, 2025, at the Crickets Theater. For tickets go here. Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings – 1st MovementPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was the first Russian composer to achieve fame outside his native land. Despite the success of many…
› Read the full entry
The Mozart Requiem
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th July 2025Mozart’s last composition, his Requiem Mass K 626, was left incomplete when he died on December 5, 1791. It was finished by the composer’s student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr. The extent to which he relied on notes left by Mozart is uncertain. Süssmayr’s other compositions are rarely performed and do not reach the level of his…
› Read the full entry
The Magic Flute in HD – 2023
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd June 2023Mozart’s enduringly popular musical comedy was televised this afternoon in its latest Met incarnation directed by Simon McBurney. The bright comedy is swathed in darkness (lighting not tone) in his staging which employs more theatrical gimmicks than found in the trunks of 10 touring magicians. The orchestral pit is raised almost to stage level. A…
› Read the full entry
Don Giovanni in HD – 2023
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th May 2023Ivo van Hove’s Jack the Ripper with music by Mozart and sets by Jan Versweyveld masquerading as Le Corbusier was telecast this afternoon from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. The screen and the program said the opera was Don Giovanni, but Mozart’s dramma giocoso had all the giocoso removed by director Hove. The…
› Read the full entry
Finale 27 – The Marriage of Figaro Act 2
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th January 2021The famous finale to Mozart’s comic opera begins when the door to the closet in a room Count Almaviva’s estate is opened. Both the Count and Countess think Cherubino, the Count’s page, is in the closet. The Count is about to break down the door and then decides to use his sword on the page…
› Read the full entry
Glenn Gould and Mozart
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st October 2020Glenn Gould was one of the greatest performers of JS Bach’s keyboard works since the advent of recordings. The Canadian pianist was also a gifted pedagogue and world class eccentric. He invented nutty alter egos, one of whom appears in the video at the end of this article. Among Gould’s quirks was hypochondriasis. Shortly after…
› Read the full entry
Mozart and Schubert at the MIM
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th May 2019The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra presented the third of three concerts devoted to Mozart and Schubert last night. The venue was the Theater of the Musical Instrument Museum. Its a sleek and comfortable auditorium ideal for smaller scale compositions. The program began with the Overture to La Clemenza di Tito, Mozart’s penultimate opera. The scaled down…
› Read the full entry
Così Fan Tutte in HD 2018
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st March 2018When I heard that the Met was going to do a new production of Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte set in Coney Island during the 1950s I was relieved that they were not going to place the last of the Da Ponte operas in a Turkish brothel. Then I wondered why the Met needed a new production…
› Read the full entry
Mad Max Meets Mozart – 2004
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 2nd February 2018This is a review that I wrote in 2004. It’s been buried deep within this site. I decided to copy it to a more visible spot. Things can always get worse. Consider Don Giovanni at the English National Opera. I was at the October 4th performance. Calixto Bieito was the director. He is from Barcelona….
› Read the full entry
