Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Lea C. Dacy

  • The finality in their voices II: physiology-defying violent opera death

    Lea C. Dacy Eelco F. M. Wijdicks Rochester, Minnesota, United States   The title character in Werther bleeding profusely from a self-inflicted gunshot wound but still able to sing an extended aria, used with permission from Alamy. In a previous article, we reviewed the plausibility of opera deaths in wasting diseases such as that of…

  • The finality in their voices: Death, disease, and palliation in opera

    Lea C. Dacy Eelco F. M. Wijdicks Rochester, Minnesota, United States   Figure 1: Violetta’s deathbed in La Traviata, from 2009 Glimmerglass Opera production directed by Sir Jonathan Miller. Photo by Richard Termine, used with his permission. I know she had tuberculosis! She was coughing her brains out . . . but still she kept…

  • The interrupted concerto: Jacqueline du Pré and MS

    Lea C. Dacy Moses Rodriguez Rochester, Minnesota, United States   Enhanced portrait of cellist by www.AB-Photography.us. Used with permission of subject and photographer. Although promoted as a “comeback,” it was almost her last public performance. In February 1973, the late Jacqueline du Pré performed the Elgar Cello Concerto in London with the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted…

  • “Heard it through the grapevine”: The black barbershop as a source of health information

    Joyce Balls-Berry Lea C. Dacy Rochester, Minnesota, USA James Balls St. Louis, Missouri, USA     The black barbershop has been a crucial gathering place in the history of the Civil Rights movement to the present day, when Barack Obama’s campaign itineraries included barbershop visits. Lesser known is the role of the black barbershop as…