The bicentenary of the birth of Frederic Chopin in 2010 was observed all over the classical world, not least in Miami, where the U.S. version of the Chopin Competition was held. The winner of that February competition was Claire Huangci, a daughter of immigrants from Beijing who grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in her … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2012
Weekend arts picks: March 31-April 1
Dance: Valentine’s Day has passed, but hopeless romantics have another opportunity this month to rekindle their relationships at Florida Classical Ballet Theatre’s staging of Romeo and Juliet. Young love, family feuds and great tragedy all are a part of William Shakespeare’s most-beloved story, set against the backdrop of sumptuous Renaissance Italy, and with one of Sergei … [Read more...]
‘Hunger Games’ works for adult viewers, too
Budding young romance and the threat of violent death are powerful dramatic forces, but who knew they were strong enough to get teens to read? That formula has worked three times now in recent years, first with the Harry Potter books, then the Twilight vampires vs. werewolves trilogy and now with The Hunger Games phenomenon. Each time, Hollywood followed up the blockbuster … [Read more...]
Pilobolus shows power of collective invention
Pilobolus finished off the Duncan Theatre’s 25th anniversary season in a way that few dance companies can. Engaging and satisfying on so many levels, one can clearly sense the unique creative force required to present such a satisfying program. The company functions as a collective, collaborating to create the works that are performed, and you can feel the hours they spend in … [Read more...]
Chita Rivera: At the cabaret with a real Broadway Baby
Before we can even mentally ask the question, Chita Rivera answers it in song, launching her cabaret act at the Colony Hotel’s Royal Room with the Kern-Hammerstein standard, I Won’t Dance. Oh, it’s not that the 79-year-old musical theater legend who hoofed her way through such Broadway original casts as West Side Story, Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman cannot dance … [Read more...]
Handsome, well-sung ‘Lucia’ ends PBO’s 50th on solid note
With its final production of the season, Palm Beach Opera showcases a number of fine voices in a handsome, traditional presentation that drags somewhat but ultimately comes off in dramatic and satisfying style. Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which the company last performed in 2003, requires a strong central soprano, and in the Mexican singer Maria Alejandres, Palm Beach … [Read more...]
Director Seidelman’s ‘Musical Chairs’ launches in SoFla, NYC
As with her previous feature, 2006’s Boynton Beach Club, director Susan Seidelman has opted to use South Florida as a test market for the release of Musical Chairs, her new movie about wheelchair ballroom dance. Well-meaning but overly sentimental, it can expect a similar spotty critical and popular reception. Still, talent from the film arrived in the area earlier this week … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 23-25
Music: Contemporary classical music has a surprising number of champions in South Florida, and that includes Tim Thompson of Palm Beach Atlantic University, who every year offers concerts of new pieces by faculty members, students, and guests. This year’s festival, called Frontwave, began last night with a concert by the piano team of Duo Gastesi-Bezerra, and tonight is the … [Read more...]
‘Matchmaker’ likeable, but falls short of pathos
The Matchmaker is an awfully familiar movie. It’s set in Haifa, Israel in 1968, but the place and time could almost as easily be the 1930s Italy of Fellini’s Amarcord or Giuseppe Tornatore’s Baaria or the postwar Italy of Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso. It shares with these films, and many others, a sepia-toned coming-of-age nostalgia, in which in a young protagonist learns the … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Woody,’ ‘Dolly!’ and ‘Working’
Those looking for tell-tale signs of Florida Stage in Lou Tyrrell’s latest venture, The Theatre at Arts Garage, need look no further than the new company’s first full production, the biographical revue Woody Sez. A close first cousin to Woody Guthrie’s American Song, which played at the predecessor troupe’s Manalapan home 18 years ago, the newer show is more folksy than … [Read more...]