The American violinist Elmar Oliveira, gold medal winner at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia in 1978, has been assiduously working on raising his local profile in the past several years, having made a mark for himself on the national and international scenes since then. A part-time resident of Jensen Beach and a teacher at Lynn University in Boca Raton, he has made … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2014
Sundays: Grow some foot of your own
By Myles Ludwig A chameleon can re-grow a lost arm, so why can’t you? Maybe you can. That’s the premise and the promise of regenerative medicine being explored with academic enthusiasm in the Wake Forest University’s Medical School lab in North Carolina by the pioneering surgeon and researcher Dr. Antony Atala. Rhode-Island based artist Kelly Milukas was commissioned to … [Read more...]
Organizers happy about 2014 Boca Fest outcome
By Dale King Festival of the Arts Boca 2014 has been relegated to the history books. But organizers are happy with the memories. The festival’s website is filled with comments about the 10-day event that marked its eighth annual incarnation this year, taking place in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park Amphitheater and at the Cultural Arts Center. Perhaps the most striking website … [Read more...]
Countertenor Mobley mesmerizes at Seraphic Fire
One of Seraphic Fire’s longtime members stepped into the solo spotlight last week with a concert of 18th-century opera and sacred music, and made an eloquent case for the beauty of the countertenor voice. Reginald Mobley, whom everyone calls Reggie, was the featured soloist in a program with Seraphic Fire’s Firebird Chamber Orchestra that paid tribute to the art and life of … [Read more...]
‘Bad Words’ nasty rather than funny
Usually, the mere presence of the great Jason Bateman in an otherwise calamitous comedy — The Ex, The Switch, The Change-Up, Identity Thief, I could sadly go on and on — makes the failed jokes go down a little easier. He’s coasted through one clunker after another because of his inherent likeability; it was the one thing, in many of those films, that made them worth watching. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: March 21-23
Theater: Yes, I know you have seen The King and I before, but director-choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge has performed her alchemy again, refreshing the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musical with stunning new visuals, including the second act ballet as a Thai shadow puppet extravaganza, and a terrific cast of largely Asian performers. As stunning as the design work is … [Read more...]
‘Hyper-theatricality’ on tap for PB Opera’s ‘Hoffmann’
Jacques Offenbach made and lost several fortunes in the course of turning out about 100 operettas for the French stage, but he wanted to write at least one serious grand opera that would show the world that he had more than frivolity up his sleeves. It was during the composition of that long hoped-for piece, Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) that he became … [Read more...]
Well-played Russian warmth from Kremlin strings at Kravis
Billed as Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, the tiny band of Russian musicians that played the Kravis Center on March 13 is really a string orchestra of 14 players: Seven violins, three violas, three cellos and one double bass. Founded in 1991 by Misha Rachlevsky, their conductor, they have toured the world extensively, and their concert in West Palm Beach was given a very warm … [Read more...]
Director of Maltz’s ‘King and I’ finds freshness in rethinking tale
Carbonell Award-winning director-choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge never shrinks from a challenge. In fact, she is drawn to the risks of re-conceiving the musicals of the great stagers, like her acclaimed take on Gower Champion’s Hello, Dolly! at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre two years ago and her current look at Jerome Robbins’ work on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, … [Read more...]
‘Face of Love’ channels Hitchock, appealingly
Since the 1970s, as American screenplays have striven for an ever more realistic dialogue patter, one thing is often lost among the ums, the likes, the stammers, the deliberately botched words and the half-finished thoughts: elegance. Nobody actually talked like Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, but we still watch His Girl Friday for the exasperating perfection of its … [Read more...]