By Robert Croan Bach’s so-called Mass in B Minor is a paradox in musical history. Firstly, it’s not a mass for liturgical use. While the work covers the text of the Latin Ordinary – those parts of the mass for which the words remain the same throughout the liturgical year – it was never intended to be performed all together. It consists of several compositions dating … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2017
‘La Sylphide’ proves ideal fit for Boca Ballet Theatre
Smaller dance companies that don’t shy away from the big classical ballets usually have to make some compromises in order to get that shows up on the boards, be it a smaller number of swans or a tiny mouse king’s army, But there are other shows besides The Nutcracker that work well for smaller educational troupes like Boca Ballet Theatre, and in Bournonville’s La Sylphide, … [Read more...]
More from Louisville: Six Humana Festival plays, reviewed
As it has for 41 years, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays premiered a handful of stage works this past month, several of which are destined for subsequent productions across the country. Here is my subjective take on the plays I saw in one crowded repertory weekend: Recent Alien Abductions, by Jorge Ignacio Cortinas – The only drama in a … [Read more...]
‘Pirates’ brings PB Opera season to smart, funny close
The operettas of William Schwenk Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan might not be the kind of touchstone they once were in American culture, but that fact gives professional opera companies room to do the works as they should be done: With thorough fealty to scripts and their often underrated scores. This past weekend, Palm Beach Opera closed its season by fulfilling that mission, … [Read more...]
Letter from Louisville: Humana Festival still vital to American theater’s future
For 41 years, the for-profit health care provider Humana and its charitable arm, the Humana Foundation, have been underwriting a pioneering new-play festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky. Through submissions and commissions, the non-profit stage company selects and fully produces a half dozen or so new scripts annually, many of which then wend their way to … [Read more...]
Tower of Power truly may be the ‘Last Band Standing’
Formed in Oakland, Calif., in 1968, Tower of Power is one of the few groups ever set to celebrate a 50-year anniversary next year. Which makes the 10-piece act’s blend of funk, R&B, soul and jazz nearly as long-lasting as rock band the Rolling Stones — and with more original members (four) than its venerable British counterpart (three). That’s right, TOP still features … [Read more...]
Pianist Ji offers creative rethinking of the recital in Rosarian concert
By Dennis D. Rooney An unusual program by a young Korean-American artist with the single name Ji was the final offering of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach's Young Concert Artists series for the 2016-17 season. Beginning piano studies at age 5, Ji-Yong Kim came to the United States at age 9 and enrolled in the Preparatory Division of Mannes College in New York and … [Read more...]
‘Arcadia’ a feast of intellectual riches at Dramaworks
Far too many evenings of theater leave one hungry for mental nourishment. Then there are the plays of Tom Stoppard, who challenges the brain with heady subject matter and tickles the funny bone with audacious wordplay. Introduced to the world in 1966 with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, his deconstruction of Hamlet by way of Waiting for Godot, Stoppard was long … [Read more...]
Bluegrass wizards The HillBenders give Duncan crowd an exciting ‘Tommy’
Pete Townshend has proven a musical visionary since he penned The Who’s first of two rock opera releases, Tommy, in 1969 (the other being Quadrophenia, in 1973), but could the guitarist/vocalist have foreseen Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry, the 2015 Compass Records release by Springfield, Mo.-based quintet The HillBenders? Perhaps. Both the group’s latest recording and its … [Read more...]
Community theater: Veteran actors (and spouses) offer engaging ‘I Do! I Do!’ at Delray Playhouse
By Dale King The musical comedy, I Do! I Do! is remarkably entertaining, considering its simplicity and minimalism. The plot – a story about the first 50 years of a couple’s married life – is sparse on its face, but pleasant in its unfolding. Music rounds out the production, now at the Delray Beach Playhouse. The show requires only a two-person cast and a single stage … [Read more...]