Kevin Short as Philippe II, Reyna Carguill as Elisabeth,Jeffrey Tucker as the Grand Inquisitor, and Gustavo LopezManzitti as Don Carlos, in the Sarasota Opera'scurrent production of Verdi's Don Carlos.(Photo by Richard Termine)By Rex HearnSARASOTA -- Don Carlos is about Philip II, the 16th-century king of Spain, and his fight with the forces of the Inquisition.This Spanish … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2009
ArtsBuzz: Norton sets photography auction
Second Avenue Gothic (2006), by C.B. Smith(20 inches by 20 inches, edition of 25)By Katie DeitsWEST PALM BEACH -- This week, the Norton Museum of Art will offer a chance for photography lovers to add to their collections when it hosts its third biennial photography auction.Proceeds from the auction, set for Friday night, benefit the West Palm Beach museum's photography … [Read more...]
Music review: Perlman does credible podium work in crackerjack Boca Ninth
By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- Perhaps Itzhak Perlman is better known for solo and chamber work as a violinist than he is as a conductor, but Sunday night he did a more than credible job at the podium leading one of the great canonical works of Western musical history.In an all-Beethoven evening at Mizner Park featuring the Ninth Symphony (in D minor, Op. 125) and the overture … [Read more...]
ArtsBuzz: Palm Beach Opera scales back to three operas for 2009-10
By Greg StepanichWEST PALM BEACH -- The Palm Beach Opera announced today a season of just three fully staged productions for the 2009-10 season instead of the current four, a concession to tough economic times and also a move toward multi-year fiscal planning that administrators hope will ensure the survival of the company."We actually already began discussing this a year ago, … [Read more...]
Music review: Bell stands out on mixed-bag Boca fest program
Conductor Alondra de la Parra.By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- Had there been any doubt that the Russian National Orchestra is one of the major stars of this year's Festival of the Arts Boca, Friday night's concert at the 11-day music-and-literature gathering would have dispelled it.Given an unusual program with three soloists and widely varied music from Third Republic French to … [Read more...]
Film review: ‘Wendy and Lucy’ a tale of a girl, a dog and hard times
Michelle Williams in Wendy and Lucy.By Hap ErsteinIt is hard not to think of Michelle Williams as that girl from Dawson’s Creek, but since then she has quietly turned into a very accomplished actress.Certainly there was evidence of that in the anguished wife she played in Brokeback Mountain, and now she is compelling in a plain, understated performance in Wendy and Lucy, a … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Books: Picoult’s ‘Handle With Care’ is gripping, heartbreaking
Writer Jodi Picoult.By Aviva L. BrandtIt’s every mother-to-be’s worst nightmare: To find out that the baby she is carrying has a health condition that will cause it to either die at birth or face a life of excruciating pain and disability.In Handle With Care, her 16th novel, Jodi Picoult (pronounced PEE’-koh) takes her readers inside that nightmare, telling a heartbreaking … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 12-17
Figure Study (24 by 36 inches), a drawingby Oakland Park artist Grant Strawcutter.Pictures to peep by: This weekend at the Bruce Webber and Meyerhoefer galleries, both in Lake Worth, it's an exhibition of exhibitionism, as viewers are invited to take a look at nudes and erotica from classic pinups and sculpture to new work by several South Florida artists.“The work ranges from … [Read more...]
Theater commentary: Miami mayor tale stands out at 1st Stage New Works Festival
By Hap Erstein Fewer and fewer theaters these days devote themselves to producing new plays, as Florida Stage does, because they take nurturing and development, which is hard work.But the Manalapan company has come up with a entertaining way to include its audience in the process with its 1st Stage New Works Festival. Now in its third year, the festival gave six new … [Read more...]
Music review: Revelatory Beethoven from Pletnev, Denk in Boca
Pianist Jeremy Denk.By Greg StepanichBOCA RATON -- We have reached the point as a civilization where you'd think there was absolutely nothing new someone could bring to the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven.And yet there it was tonight at the Festival of the Arts Boca: A performance of this 205-year-old masterwork that was sometimes head-shakingly odd and textually questionable, but … [Read more...]