Alzheimer - the Opera

Alzheimer - the Opera, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Today is the premiere of Alzheimer - The Opera at the Muziekgebouw aan de Amstel.

The opera has been written by our neighbour Bert Keizer, who is alos a philosopher, writer, journalist and doctor. A busy man. He has spent many years working with old people in old people's homes and has become an expert in their care and various difficult issues surrounding old people, such as death, euthanesia and Alzheimer. He is very direct but full of humanity and has been a big help to certain friends in time of loss.

I was a little shocked to read in various articles which I found about him through search engines that the Americans insist on referring to euthanesia as doctor-assisted suicide. They are always so literal in their use of language but I can't help but think that this term has been developed by the religious fringe to turn people against it.

Anyway, this opera deals with Alzheimer, and, would you believe it, evolution. We were lucky enough to catch a sample of it during the Uitmarkt in Amsterdam about three weeks ago. The music was beautifully sung by some very attractive women and the texts were easy enough to follow.... so we are looking forward to a good evening.

And we wish success to Bert in this new venture of his.