Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, which I heard Saturday at Palm Beach Opera, had a last-minute replacement tenor, Richard Troxell, filling in for the indisposed Bruno Ribeiro. The high tessitura of Romeo’s part proved difficult for Troxell on occasion, especially in the first two acts. However, he rallied and won the hearts and minds of the audience with a courageous second-half … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2012
The VIP Art Fair: E-commerce comes to the Salon
The Web has enabled the advent of the pajama-clad, online shopping experience, but can e-commerce work in one of the world’s most lucrative retail markets? The founders of the VIP Art Fair — James and Jane Cohan, owners of the James Cohan Gallery in New York and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Jonas and Alessandra Almgren — believe so. They’ve created the world’s first virtual, … [Read more...]
A great night for Francophiles, if not Oscar predictors
The best thing that happened to the Oscars this year is that Brett Rattner shot off his mouth with some wince-inducing homophobic comments a few months ago and was forced to resign as the telecast’s producer. Then his designated emcee, Eddie Murphy, walked out in a show of solidarity. That led Brian Grazer to the rescue, a man who understands how to move the usually lumbering … [Read more...]
Reporter exhaustively uncovers chronicle of Indian misery
Katherine Boo spent more than three years observing life in a wretched slum in Mumbai, one of India’s largest cities. She tells the story in this absorbing new book, filled with shocking details about wasted lives, gruesome deaths and widespread corruption. Known as Annawadi, the slum was founded in 1991 by workers trucked in to repair a runway at the city’s international … [Read more...]
Oscar predictions: ‘Artist,’ Clooney, Streep, Plummer, Spencer
2012 will officially become the year of the silent, black-and-white film after Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony. That is when The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius’s clever homage to the early days of the movies will be anointed as the best picture of the year. Of course, it is not. The Descendants is, but there is no denying the groundswell of affection in Hollywood for the band of … [Read more...]
Handsome ‘Romeo’ largely successful at PB Opera
Palm Beach Opera was working out some kinks Friday night as it tried on the theatrical clothes of a new production, but in the end, it achieved a satisfying and reasonably compelling telling of a classic love story. Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, a tuneful, sentimental example of French Romantic opera at its most endearing, is the third production in the West Palm … [Read more...]
Paul Taylor Company masterful in Duncan show
The Paul Taylor Dance Company graced the stage of the Duncan Theatre on Friday night, presenting three works from one of the nation’s best and most prolific choreographer. Fortunately for us, the company was able to fill in for the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, which was unable to make it here for the Duncan Theatre’s 25th anniversary season. Paul Taylor (b. 1930) has choreographed … [Read more...]
Angela Meade: A rising soprano looks ahead
Soprano Angela Meade is the winner of the 2011 Richard Tucker Award and the 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award from the Metropolitan Opera. Less than four years after her professional debut, she has quickly become recognized as one of the outstanding vocalists of her generation. Meade is from Washington State where she was a pre-med major before discovering her love of singing. … [Read more...]
Cliburn medalist Zhang sets big challenges for himself
He is young and only at the beginning of his career, but Haochen Zhang already has a firm grasp on how to build a good concert program. Zhang, the gold medalist at the last Van Cliburn Competition in 2009, is ending his concert tonight at the Kravis Center with Islamey, Mili Balakirev’s corker of a showpiece, and one favored by an older generation of pianists. It doesn’t have … [Read more...]
‘Red’ marks major advance; ‘Pitmen’ proves inert play
“The art of making art” is a frequent fascination of playwrights, who find in the visual arts a metaphor for their own struggle of creation. Currently, by a fluke of scheduling, two such plays on the creative process are on view -- John Logan’s 2010 Tony Award-winning Red and Lee Hall’s The Pitmen Painters, from the following season on Broadway. Both are well-produced and … [Read more...]