Dr. Bob Prescribes Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro
May
2nd,
2023
My Dr. Bob Prescribes post for February 21 of this year feature Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s superb video of Gioachino Rossini’s Barber of Seville. During the course of that post, I wrote: “Comedy requires deftness, speed, and timing, timing, and more timing. Ponnelle’s production has it all, and the opera crackles under his direction. I would like…
Music History Monday: The Enduring Miracle
May
1st,
2023
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, title page of the first edition of the score, published by the firm of N. Simrock in 1819 On May 1, 1786 – on what was also a Monday, 237 years ago today - a miracle was heard for the first time: Wolfgang Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro received…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Funny Girl
April
25th,
2023
Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand, and the Critics The famed Pauline Kael spent much of her review of Funny Girl in The New Yorker identifying what she called the film’s “weaknesses.” Roger Ebert (1942-2013) in 1969 Roger Ebert, writing in Chicago Sun-Times on October 18, 1968, thought that: “The film is perhaps the ultimate example of…
Music History Monday: A Voice Like Buttah!
April
24th,
2023
Barbra Streisand (born 1942) in 1965 We mark the birth on April 24, 1942 – 81 years ago today – of the American singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker Barbara Joan “Barbra” Streisand, in Brooklyn, New York. But first, before we get to the magnificent Babs, a brief but spirited edition of “This Day In…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion
April
18th,
2023
The Easter Holiday has come and gone, but the melody lingers. The “melody” to which I specifically refer is Johann Sebastian Bach’s epic St Matthew Passion, which was first performed on Good Friday, April 11, 1727, at the St. Thomas Church (or Thomaskirche) in the Saxon city of Leipzig. Revised versions of the St Matthew…
Music History Monday: I Left My Nerve in San Francisco
April
17th,
2023
Grand Opera House (originally “Wade’s Opera House”), San Francisco, in 1881 We mark the final San Francisco performance - on the evening of Tuesday, April 17, 1906, 117 years ago today – of the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (1874-1921). That performance at the no longer extant Grand Opera House at No. 2 Mission Street…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem
April
11th,
2023
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was born and raised in the cold, dank, north German city of Hamburg. (As an adult, he habitually vacationed in the warmer climes of Italy; it would seem that it took him half a lifetime to warm his frozen bones!) Johannes Brahms at twenty Physically, Brahms matured very slowly. By the age…
Music History Monday: A Mama’s Boy, and Proud of It!
April
10th,
2023
We mark the premiere on April 10, 1868 – 155 years ago today – of Johannes Brahms’ magnificent A German Requiem, for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) in 1866 Johannes Brahms, Again? I know I’ve been going heavy on Brahms (1833-1897) as of late. I would apologize if he wasn’t so fascinating…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Dave McKenna, solo piano
April
4th,
2023
It Happens Every Spring Five days ago, on March 30, 2023, something took place that hadn’t happened since 1968, 55 years ago: major league baseball’s Opening Day took place with all thirty teams starting their season on the same day. I am aware that this year, spring technically began on March 20, 2023. But let’s…
Music History Monday: The Death of Johannes Brahms
April
3rd,
2023
Johannes Brahms on his deathbed, April 1897 We mark the death on April 3, 1897 – 126 years ago today – of the German composer and pianist Johannes Brahms at the age of 63. One of the great ones and along with Sebastian Bach and Louis van Beethoven one of the three bees - the…