Medicine & Opera | Comments and reviews of opera, music, and medicine

New writing

More on Error

November 15, 2026

I have written about error before, but she still follows me like my shadow. I have therefore decided to consider how to deal with her rather than continue my futile efforts to escape. Familiarity has not bred contempt, exactly, but it has supplied plenty of material. There is no universally accepted list of all human […]

BSO Appoints Dame Konga Sergeivitzky as New Music Director

November 10, 2026

Dora Doppelgänger, the first openly transhuman president of the BSO, has announced the appointment of Dame Konga Sergeivitzky as music director of the renowned orchestra effective September 1, 2027. Sergeivitzky, a lowland African gorilla, was was made a dame last year by King Charles for her commitment to nonhuman music. The British monarch said he […]

Quacks at the Opera

November 9, 2026

I had to dig a little deeper than usual to come up with seven operas that feature evil or crooked doctors. Four of the seven are in the standard repertory, but the other three are rare birds. Medicine offers the dramatist an unusually useful form of license. A doctor can enter a stranger’s house, demand […]

Wasted Time

November 3, 2026

There’s been a lot of handwringing over the twice-yearly switch between standard time and daylight saving time. The Congress has found time from its busy schedule of doing nothing to horn in on the subject. The president too has a strong opinion about the switch. The only opinion that seems to have no purchase is […]

Christmas in Music: Memory, Wonder, and Tradition

November 1, 2026

Below are the program notes I wrote for the December 1, 2026 Holiday Concert by the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. Tickets can be purchased here. Christmas and music are inextricably connected. Holiday concerts are an annual event throughout the Western world. The repertory is enormous. A song written for a Hollywood film can become as much […]

Pene Pati – Nessun Dorma

October 27, 2026

Puccini’s last tenor aria is the title of a 2024 album by Samoan tenor Pene Pati. Pati was born in Samoa in 1987 and grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. He studied at the Wales International Academy of Voice in Cardiff and subsequently trained in San Francisco Opera’s Merola and Adler programs. In 2015 he […]

Adventures in Marketing

October 22, 2026

A few years back, I wrote an article arguing that Walmart’s future was dim because of its unsuccessful competition with Amazon. As so often happens here, I was wrong. The reason I was down on Walmart was that it couldn’t match Amazon’s speedy and reliable delivery system. Given enough time, Walmart seems to have mastered […]

Comprimari

October 20, 2026

A comprimario, or comprimaria in the feminine, is an opera singer who performs supporting roles. The designation describes an assignment or a professional specialty, not a lower standard of musicianship. These singers portray the servants, confidantes, courtiers, messengers, and officials who give an opera its social setting and help its action unfold. Some have only […]

Macbeth in HD 2026

October 17, 2026

The Met televised Verdi’s Macbeth for the third time in its Live in HD series today. This time the production was a new look at the opera by Louisa Proske. It opened the current season last month. The opera has recently been getting a lot of attention from the Met considering that it didn’t perform […]

Why Art Forms Rise and Fall

October 13, 2026

An art form can outlive the age that made it necessary. Its masterpieces may remain indispensable long after the production of comparable new works has become exceptional. This appears to be the condition of the symphony and opera, which are the two art forms on which I will focus this essay. Italian opera from Rossini […]

Do GLP-1 Drugs Have Effects Beyond Weight Loss?

October 11, 2026

GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, mimic glucagon-like peptide-1, a hormone released by the intestine after eating. This hormone helps coordinate the body’s response to food: it prompts the pancreas to release insulin when blood sugar rises, reduces signals that cause the liver to release stored sugar, slows the passage of food out of […]

New Site Design

October 9, 2026

Medicine & Opera is almost 19 years old. The design of the site was last revised 16 years ago, an eternity in computer years. Accordingly I decided that enough time had passed to justify an update. This is it. As with anything new there may some glitches. If you come across any, please let me […]

Verdi’s Overture to The Sicilian Vespers

October 7, 2026

Verdi’s overture to The Sicilian Vespers compresses much of his dramatic genius into a single orchestral movement. Menace, tenderness, violence, and exhilaration succeed one another with an assurance that makes the music compelling even to listeners unfamiliar with the opera. Its independent life in the concert hall is entirely deserved. Yet its popularity also presents […]

Così Fan Tutte in HD 2026

October 3, 2026

The Met’s 26-27 HD series started today with a reprise of Phelim McDermott’s production which was previously telecast by the company in 2018. You can read about the production set in 1950s Coney Island in my review of that telecast. Surprisingly, placing the story in an exaggerated version of the south Brooklyn amusement area worked, […]

Loredano Rosin – Master of Glass

October 2, 2026

Sometime in the mid 1980s I was visiting a colleague in Mestre on the mainland opposite Venice. He took me to the workshop of the famous glass sculptor Loredano Rosin. After a long conversation with the artist who demonstrated his technique with sculptured, not blown, glass I acquired the two figures shown below. Click on […]

Medicine & Opera: Comments and reviews of opera, music, and medicine