By Dennis D. Rooney Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is no longer a rarity in the concert hall, but some orchestras have yet to perform it, and that included the Palm Beach Symphony until its concert March 7 at the Kravis Center as this season’s fourth Masterworks program. The audience assembled in Dreyfoos Hall was expecting to hear the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires … [Read more...]
Archives for March 2022
Pilobolus’s 50th, at Duncan, was a mish-mash rather than a celebration
The renowned creative collective known as Pilobolus had been scheduled to return to Palm Beach County in April 2020 after a four-year absence. Unfortunately, they ended up being the first show to be canceled at the Duncan Theatre because of COVID-19. They were booked to return in February 2021, but once again their performances had to be canceled. Finally, this year on … [Read more...]
‘Sh-Boom!’ offers mild 1950s fluff at The Wick
When Marilynn Wick, executive managing producer of her eponymous Boca Raton theater, pulled the plug on a planned mounting of the musical Damn Yankees for financial reasons, she went looking for a less expensive, easier-to-produce show. And as the saying goes, “You get what you pay for,” in this case a piece of 1950s jukebox fluff called Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream. That … [Read more...]
‘Anastasia’: Projections help bring magic to Russian what-if story
One of the great “what if” tales of stage and screen wonders what if Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, the youngest princess of the Russian Romanovs, did not die with her family in 1918 during the bloody Russian Revolution. And what if she resurfaced 10 years later to reunite with her dowager grandmother and claim the clan’s fortune? The story has fascinated audiences for … [Read more...]
‘Drive My Car’: When grief leaves you in neutral
If only Paul McCartney earned royalties for mental playbacks, he’d be an even bigger billionaire this Oscar season. I’m sure I’m not alone in taking the Beatle’s libidinous 1965 earworm for a spin around the cerebrum every time I see another headline about Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, the first Japanese film to be nominated for Best Picture. But this Drive My Car, now … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire tackles challenge of Bach cantata program worthily
By Dennis D. Rooney One of the most memorable aspects of Seraphic Fire’s all-Bach program, which took place Feb. 27 at St. Gregory's Espicopal Church in Boca Raton, was the striking impression made by the large stained-glass sanctuary window behind the singers and players. Two Bach cantatas (Nos. 62 and 147) and the Mass in G minor (BWV 235), composed the program, which … [Read more...]
Welcome to the Technicolor jungle: Helmut Koller at Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens
A white-faced capuchin monkey bites its middle finger to mask its anxiety or astonishment. The confused expression directed at us is reminiscent of a creature arrested from its natural habitat, the rain forest.This monkey is, after all, levitating on a red wall. Purple Monkey on Red (2016) is one of 19 hyper-realistic, color-soaked paintings of animals turning Ann Norton … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Book Festival features Watergate historian Graff, actor Cumming, director Stone
Author, journalist and historian Garret M. Graff wasn’t even born in 1972 when the Watergate scandal unfolded 50 years ago, ending in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on Aug. 9, 1974. But Graff, 40, has become one of the country’s foremost experts on that scandal and will speak about those events and his latest book, Watergate: A New History, at the eighth … [Read more...]
MCB’s ‘Swan Lake’: A monumental feather shakeup
Today, it’s hard to imagine that Swan Lake, the most iconic evening-length ballet, was not a success when it was first created in 1877. It is now -- without a doubt -- the most respected of classical ballets and it is the pinnacle of achievement for a ballet company to have a successful version in the repertory. Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez makes no bones sharing what an … [Read more...]
PB Opera’s ‘Elixir of Love’: A silly love story, beautifully sung and told
By Rosie Rogers One of the most exciting things about opera is the indulgence and relatability of its heightened emotions, and what’s more relatable than the uncertainty of love? Directed by Fenlon Lamb, Palm Beach Opera’s production of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love created this relatability by telling a love story that is as earnest as it is silly. Gorgeous lighting … [Read more...]