`Opera: The Palm Beach Opera opens its second mainstage production tonight with Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, one of the bel canto’s most charming and radiant scores. Janai Brugger is Norina, David Portillo is Ernesto, Lucas Meachem is Dr. Malatesta, and Carlo Lepore sings Pasquale in a production directed by Fenlon Lamb and conducted by Antonino Fogliani. The plot of this 1843 … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2016
‘Race’: Absorbing study of an ambiguous finish line
As expected, Stephen Hopkins’ biopic of Jesse Owens is full of suspenseful action on tracks and fields, Olympic and otherwise. The refreshing surprise of Race is that it’s a more important film than it needed to be regarding ethics, morality, identity, politics, history and, yes, race. Even while somewhat conforming to a crowd-pleasing triumphalist formula, Race lives up to … [Read more...]
Spears’s Mozart additions compelling in Seraphic Fire revival
By Robert Croan It’s a daunting and presumptuous task for any composer to complete Mozart’s magnificent Requiem, but that’s just what Gregory Spears has done, on commission from the equally audacious Seraphic Fire vocal ensemble, which performed the amalgamated version in several South Florida venues Feb. 12-14. It was a repeat for Seraphic Fire, who premiered the Requiem … [Read more...]
Neave Trio proves ‘bright, radiant’ at Flagler
The Neave Trio: Mikhail Veselov, Eri Nakamura and Anna Williams. By Kevin Wilt On Feb. 9, the Neave Trio played an historic concert at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum as part of the museum’s 2016 Music Series. The occasion was marked by the return of the original Steinway grand piano Flagler bought for his wife, after it had been sold in the 1920s when the Whitehall estate … [Read more...]
O’Neill’s ‘Long Day’s Journey’ brings out the impeccable in Dramaworks
Michael Stewart Allen, John Leonard Thompson, Dennis Creaghan and Maureen Anderman in Long Day’s Journey into Night. (Photo by Samantha Mighdoll) There is something about the great works of American drama that brings out the best in Palm Beach Dramaworks, as exemplified by its powerful, impeccably performed production of Eugene O’Neill’s epic autobiographical masterwork, Long … [Read more...]
At Jewelry, Art and Antique Show, listening to the look of art
A Meaningful Guide to the Scientific Authentication of Asian Antiquities, by Michael C. Teller IV. By Myles Ludwig Art is the visual narrative of history and there is a lot to learn at the Palm Beach Jewelry, Art and Antique Show now running at the Convention Center in West Palm Beach. There are exhibitors who are not only displaying the finest examples of the moments on the … [Read more...]
Hanslip electrifying, Falletta refined in Buffalo Phil concert
In a short three-city tour of West Palm Beach, Vero Beach and Fort Lauderdale, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra showed Feb. 7 at the Kravis Center just how good they are under the baton of JoAnn Falletta, one of the fine women conductors who has made inroads into the once male-dominated maestro domain. Abandoning the usual warm-up piece of overture or tone poem, the … [Read more...]
Arts buzz: Brief notes in local arts
Flagler Museum director Blades retiring after 21 years PALM BEACH — John Blades, executive director of the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, will retire at the end of this month, the museum said. Blades has been the museum’s executive director since June 1995, and is credited with overseeing the revitalization of the museum, which began life as Henry Flagler’s Whitehall mansion. … [Read more...]
Forever Andy: Triple Warhol at the Boca Museum
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1985), by Andy Warhol. (Marc Bell collection) A pastel-pink print featuring the word Macintosh and its logo in rainbow colors was the first Andy Warhol silkscreen Marc Bell bought for the practical purpose of adorning his Apple dealership in New York. The Boca Raton entrepreneur now owns a substantial amount of them and is letting them … [Read more...]
Beyond the pills: A look at mind over the matter of illness
Placebo-controlled medical trials “have been one of the most important developments in medicine, allowing us to determine scientifically which medicines work and which don’t, saving countless lives in the process,” writes Jo Marchant in this compelling new book. Researchers commonly test the efficacy of new drugs by dividing patients into two groups. One group receives … [Read more...]