Victor DeRenzi, artistic director of the Sarasota Opera. (Photo by Giovanni Lunardi) On Saturday night, the curtain at the Sarasota Opera House will open on a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aïda, marking the beginning of the 57th season at the house. And with a production later in the season of La Battaglia di Legnano, it will mark the culmination of a 28-year project … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2016
Mezzo Shaham brings ‘Carmen’ to vivid life in PB Opera opener
Georges Bizet’s Carmen is a box-office lock, as Sunday afternoon’s performance at the jam-packed Kravis Center amply demonstrated. But because of that, opera companies have been known to take it easy production-wise and let the music do most of the communicating. Thankfully, Palm Beach Opera’s presentation of this tremendously popular work (it last presented the piece in 2010) … [Read more...]
Hubbard Street Dance brilliant at Duncan Theatre
By Tara Mitton Catao Hubbard Street Dance Chicago made a great impression Friday night while making its first appearance as part of the Duncan Theatre’s popular dance series in Lake Worth. The polished company that started more than 30 years ago as a jazz and tap dance troupe performing in the parks of Chicago has morphed into a top-notch contemporary dance organization that … [Read more...]
SoFla Symphony gets needed lift from Master Chorale in Beethoven 9
By Kevin Wilt Sunday afternoon, the South Florida Symphony stopped by the Carole and Barry Kaye Auditorium at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton to play a pair of symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven. This performance was third in their January tour, beginning in Key West, and ending with their debut at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. The first half of the concert … [Read more...]
Rare cello works make for splendid Chameleon concert
By Robert Croan Cellist Iris van Eck is one of South Florida’s busiest and most productive classical musicians. Her activities include running the splendid Chameleon chamber music series, which she founded in 2003; playing in Symphony of the Americas, where she is principal cellist; teaching and much more. On Chameleon’s Jan. 24 concert, the Dutch-born artist had her own … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Will Rogers Follies,’ ‘Diva Diaries,’ ‘South Pacific’
If I were programming the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, I would also be looking for vehicles for the dynamic Matt Loehr, who has earned Carbonell Awards for each of his three previous appearances there (Crazy for You, Hello, Dolly!, The Music Man). While he is too high-energy to be an ideal fit to play cowboy-humorist-philosopher Will Rogers, the laconic “poet lariat” of the nation, … [Read more...]
Brutal, unsentimental ‘Son of Saul’ makes powerful impact without tears
Son of Saul is a symphony of genocide in surround-sound. Trucks heave and chug, carrying the cargo of lives soon to be incinerated. Death machines hiss and pound and whir, and metal scrapes metal. Gunfire and bombs resound from the very near distance. Dogs bark at everything. There are wails, protests and prayers in Yiddish that are untranslated, because why bother? The … [Read more...]
Strong singing makes for thrilling ‘Norma’ at FGO
Florida Grand Opera’s current production of Norma, Vincenzo Bellini’s beloved bel canto singfest from 1831, has a little something extra for its patrons: An added aria by Richard Wagner. But it already has the basic thing it needs, and that’s thrilling singing. Working off a strong directorial vision from Nic Muni, FGO’s Norma features standout vocal work from its four chief … [Read more...]
Community theater: Singing stands out in ‘High Society’ at LW Playhouse
By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse goes all out for its first show of 2016, High Society, the tale of a Long Island socialite who waxes blasé on the night before her wedding when two suitors try to nudge her away from the groom-to-be. It’s an interesting mix of highbrow banter and scatterbrained hijinks that is well worth seeing. Jodie Dixon-Mears, the artist boss at the … [Read more...]
Conductor Amado, pianist Garritson lead fine ACO opener
David Amado, director of the Delaware Symphony and the first of four conductors to be considered by the Atlantic Classical Orchestra as a successor to Stewart Robertson, led a concert Jan. 13 with the ACO whose quality was unsurpassable. The concert at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens opened with the overture to Carl Maria von Weber’s Oberon, an opera … [Read more...]