Music History Monday: The Case Against Madama Butterfly
February
17th,
2020
Cover of the first edition of the score of Madama Butterfly, by Leopoldo Metlicovitz We mark the world premiere performance on February 17, 1904 – 116 years ago today – of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly at the storied opera house of La Scala, in the Italian city of Milan. I would tell you a…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Luciano Pavarotti
February
11th,
2020
Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated the 14th anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti’s appearance at the opening ceremony of the XX Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. It made sense then, that today’s Dr. Bob Prescribes post should feature a Pavarotti recording. Alas, or in the parlance of Italian opera, Ohime!, what seemed simple turned out…
Music History Monday: It Ain’t Over Until the Fat Man Sings!
February
10th,
2020
We would note two major events on this day from the world of opera. We will mark the first event in a moment; the second event – which constitutes the body and soul of this post – will be observed only after we’ve had a chance to do some prep. Leontyne Price (born 1927) We…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Palestrina’s Pope Marcellus Mass
February
4th,
2020
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1593) Yesterday’s Music History Monday post celebrated the 495th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a birth presumed to have taken place on February 3, 1525. During the course of that post we observed that unlike virtually every other eminent composer of the so-called…
Music History Monday: A Model of Utopian Perfection to this Day!
February
3rd,
2020
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1593) We mark the presumed birth on February 3, 1525 – 495 years ago today – of the Rome-based Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Unlike virtually every other great composer of the Renaissance, a list of which includes such formidable names as Josquin des Prez, William Byrd, Giovanni Gabrieli, Guillaume…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Mozart’s Piano Quartets
January
28th,
2020
Statements of superlatives are dangerous because they can ride roughshod over the sorts of important details that would otherwise force us to qualify those superlative statements. George Herman “Babe” Ruth (1895-1948) in 1922 For example. The consensus “greatest baseball player” of all time is Babe Ruth (1895-1948), whose stats as a power hitter were so…
Music History Monday: A Day That Can Mean Only One Thing!
January
27th,
2020
A portrait of Mozart dating from 1782/83 by his brother-in-law, Joseph Lange. The portrait is incomplete; Lange planned to depict Mozart playing a piano. Incomplete or not, Lange’s portrait was considered by Mozart’s contemporaries to be the most accurate depiction of Mozart ever made. We mark the birth on January 27, 1756 – 264 years…
Dr. Bob Prescribes ‘Die Fledermaus’
January
21st,
2020
Yesterday’s Music History Monday marked the occasion, on January 20, 1982, when Ozzy Osborne bit the head off of a dead and decaying bat during a performance at the Des Moines Veterans Memorial Auditorium. To his credit, Osbourne thought that the bat-like other such rodents and reptiles tossed on stage during his performances – was…
Music History Monday: Fine Dining
January
20th,
2020
Józef Hofmann (1876-1967) January 20 is indeed an interesting day in music history, particularly notable for anniversaries of births and deaths. Among those born on this day was the outstanding Polish/American pianist Józef Hofmann, born in 1876 (and died in 1967; my grandmother took some lessons with Hofmann at the New York Institute of Musical…
Dr. Bob Prescribes The Tango Project
January
14th,
2020
Yesterday’s Music History Monday post focused on the accordion, an important patent for which was granted to the Philadelphia-based inventor Anthony Foss on January 13, 1854: 166 years ago yesterday. As detailed in yesterday’s Music History Monday, for reasons having to do with class politics and pure snobbery, the accordion is often looked down upon…