Edward Gibbon wrote, “History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” His great predecessor the Greek historian Polybius (c. 200 – c....
John McCormack (1885-1945) was an Irish tenor active from about 1909 to the early 1940s. Born to Scottish parents who had emigrated to Ireland, his interest in singing began as a child. In 1903, ...
Those passionate about improving things but without the wit to do it are the most dangerous humans on the planet. One sees this everywhere. Its most virulent form is the complex system. Solitary ...
The Casa di Riposo per Musicisti (Rest Home for Musicians) in Milan is almost always referred to as the Casa Verdi after the titan of opera who built and paid for it. Verdi’s operatic career ...
Niall Ferguson is one the most distinguished historians of the current century. King Charles III recently knighted him. We’re All Soviets Now is an article by him in which he notes the similari...
https://medicine-opera.com/2024/06/niall-ferguson-on-soviet-america/
Art, in all its guises, is of course an invention. Its evolution was governed by the internal manipulation common to any human endeavor. But it was also greatly altered and influenced by inventio...
With the possible exception of the Bridal March from Lohengrin, the music that opens Act 3 of Die Walküre – The Ride of the Valkyries – is the most familiar written by Richard Wagner. The Ri...
https://medicine-opera.com/2024/06/the-ride-of-the-valkyries/
Maria Jeritza (1887-1982) was one of opera’s most glamorous and accomplished sopranos of the pre-World War I years extending to the early 30s. She was famous for her large and silvery spinto an...
It’s been 12 years since Yo-Yo Ma appeared as a guest artist with the LSO. His return last night was greeted with extravagant enthusiasm by a sold-out audience at the Buddy Holly Hall. The enti...
https://medicine-opera.com/2024/06/yo-yo-ma-headlines-lubbock-symphonys-all-dvorak-program/
In 1787 the new US Constitution had just been constructed. William Stephens Smith the son-in-law of John Adams sent Jefferson a copy. Jefferson was minister to France and was in Paris at the time...
https://medicine-opera.com/2024/06/jefferson-and-the-tree-of-liberty/