Robert Greenberg
Historian, Composer, Pianist, Speaker, Author
Latest News:
Dr. Bob Prescribes The Music of Bright Sheng
December 7th, 2021
My Music History Monday post for November 29 focused on the composer Bright Sheng (born 1955), who made the unforgivable mistake of playing Laurence Olivier’s movie of Shakespeare’s Othello to an undergraduate class at the University of Michigan without first offering up a prophylactic explanation/apologia for Oliver’s makeup (the character of Othello being a dark-skinned North African Moor). Bright Sheng was born 66 years ago yesterday, on December 6, 1955, in Shanghai, China. He began…
Music History Monday: Altamont
December 6th, 2021
We mark the disastrous concert held on December 6, 1969 – 52 years ago today – at the Altamont Speedway here in Alameda Country in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over 300,000 people attended, four of whom died that day, one of them at the hands of the so-called “security personnel.” The word “Altamont” has…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: The Triumphs of Oriana
November 30th, 2021
In yesterday’s Music History Monday post, I mentioned a very few of the virtually countless sins that would cause me to be drummed out of today’s academia. Among those I have indulged in the past – and which would undoubtedly get me into trouble in the present – would be making humorous light of Queen…
Music History Monday: What to Do About Otello?
November 29th, 2021
Before getting to the question that drives today’s post, we would recognize five date-worthy events: a tragedy; two notable cancellations, and two notable opera performances. First, the tragedy. On November 29, 2001 – 20 years ago today – George Harrison died in Los Angeles of lung cancer at the age of 58. Born in Liverpool…