Dr. Bob Prescribes Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1912)
March
21st,
2023
“What Right Had He to Write This Thing?” Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) and Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950) in 1911; Nijinsky is costumed as Petrushka A happy vernal equinox to everyone and sundry! Yes, technically the first day of spring in 2023 was yesterday, March 20. But I was taught that the first day of spring is usually…
Music History Monday: Why All the Hate?
March
20th,
2023
We mark the wedding on March 20, 1969 – 54 years ago today – between the Liverpool-born Beatle John Lennon (1940-1980) and the Tokyo-born artist and musician Yoko Ono (born 1933). Their wedding took place in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. At the time of their…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Charles Ives, Three Places in New England
February
28th,
2023
The Ultimate Hobbyist Yesterday’s Music History Monday post featured the non-musical hobbies of some of our favorite musicians, from Rod Stewart’s train set, to Courtney Love’s Liddle Kiddle dolls (made by Mattel in the late 1960s), to Arnold Schoenberg’s mania for tennis and ping pong, to Gioachino Rossini’s delight in all things food. The subject…
Music History Monday: Everyone Should Have a Hobby!
February
27th,
2023
On February 27, 2018 – five years ago today – Barbra Streisand (born 1942) revealed that she had cloned her dying dog Samantha (nicknamed “Sammie”) twice. (No jokes here about Ms. Streisand singing “Send in the Clones.”) Streisand and Samantha in 2004, during happier times The revelation regarding the Samantha’s clones was made during…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Giacomo Rossini, The Barber of Seville
February
21st,
2023
Italian Opera as an Industry The Teatro San Cassiano in 1637: a digital reconstruction From the moment the first public opera house – the Teatro San Cassiano - opened in Venice in 1637, opera has been a media industry in Italy. By the early nineteenth century, virtually every Italian city and many Italian towns as…
Music History Monday: The First Night: Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville
February
20th,
2023
We mark the premiere performance, on February 20, 1816 – 207 years ago today – of Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera masterwork, The Barber of Seville, at Rome’s famed Teatro Argentina. Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868) in 1815 by Vicenzo Camuccini The Natural Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born on February 29 (bummer of a birthday!), 1792 in…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Richard Wagner: Siegried Idyll
February
14th,
2023
Advertising postcard picturing Wagner (with his father-in-law Franz Liszt directly behind him) greeting Kaiser Wilhelm I at the inaugural Bayreuth Festival in 1876 The Giving of Gifts It is appropriate that today, on St. Valentine’s Day, we celebrate a piece of music given as a gift of love from a husband to his wife: Richard…
Music History Monday: A Man for All Symptoms: The Death of Wagner
February
13th,
2023
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) in 1871 We mark the death, on February 13, 1883 – 140 years ago today – of the German composer Richard Wagner, in Venice, at the age of 69. He had been born in the Saxon city of Leipzig on May 22, 1813. Wagner’s Health Writing in Hektoen International – A Journal…
Dr. Bob Prescribes The Last Waltz
February
7th,
2023
The Band The Band; left-to-right: Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel, and Rick Danko The group of five musicians that eventually became known as “The Band” began to gather in Toronto, Canada, in 1957. However, it wasn’t until 1968 - after working as the backup group for the Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins…
Music History Monday: Johannes Ockeghem and the Oltremontani
February
6th,
2023
We mark the death on February 6, 1497 – 526 years ago today – of the composer and singer Johannes Ockeghem, in Tours, France, at the age of 87 (or so). He was born circa 1410 in the French-speaking city of Saint-Ghislain in what today is Belgium, about 5 miles from the border with France. …