Tag Archives: Verdi
Ezekiel Emanuel and the Purpose of Medicine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th October 2014It is amazing how many doctors seem not to have the fuzziest conception of the purpose of medicine. Ezekiel Emanuel who is trained in internal medicine and oncology but who has concentrated on public policy has written an article in the Atlantic that seems to display almost total ignorance of what medicine is about. The…
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Mozart, Verdi, and Heart Transplantation
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th March 2012This observation appeared just five days ago. It sounds like it belongs in the Journal of Irreproducible Results rather than the Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Nevertheless, here is the paper’s abstract : Auditory stimulation of opera music induced prolongation of murine cardiac allograft survival and maintained generation of regulatory CD4+CD25+ cells Masateru Uchiyama, Xiangyuan Jin, Qi Zhang, Toshihito…
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Thoughts On The Puccini Sesquicentennial
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 20th December 2008Much of the July 2008 issue of Opera News is devoted to Giacomo Puccini who was born in 1858. Anybody who loves the composer’s operas, which is anyone who has ever heard them and who is not a terminal snob, will enjoy reading the articles analyzing various components of Puccini’s amazing ability with melody and…
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Simon Boccanegra in San Francisco
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th September 2008The San Francisco Opera presented Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra on Friday September 12th. The last time I heard Verdi’s flawed masterpiece was also in San Francisco. Paolo Gavanelli sang the title role in the company’s 2001 production. The performance I heard was a disaster. Gavanelli’s voice was somewhere else yet he attempted to sing. A whisper…
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Macbeth in HD
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th January 2008In the third HD telecast of this season (January 12, 2008) the Met finally got around to one of opera’s great masterpieces. Unfortunately Macbeth is not performed as often as its worth merits. In fact, it wasn’t first performed at the Met until February 5, 1959, with Leonard Warren and Leonie Rysanek as the Macbeths….
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