By Robert Croan The Symphony of the Americas’ final subscription concert of the 2024-25 season was a program called “Broadway Showstoppers: The Leading Men,” [seen May 11 at Broward Center’s Amaturo Theater] featuring four male singers who have performed leading or supporting roles on Broadway and elsewhere. It was the end of Luke Frazier’s tenure as the orchestra’s … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Carmen’ featured fine leads, interesting staging ideas
By Robert Croan For the third and final production of her first season as Florida Grand Opera’s general director and CEO, Maria Todaro took on the multiple tasks of stage director and even costume designer to produce her personal take on Bizet’s perennial favorite, Carmen [seen April 26 at the Broward Center]. A retired mezzo-soprano who was once a successful Carmen … [Read more...]
Pianist offers powerhouse Chopin recital to wrap Lauderdale-by-the-Sea chamber series
By Robert Croan Chamber Music at Lauderdale-by-the Sea is a valuable but underpublicized series presented by the FilAm Music Foundation, directed by Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asunción, who funds it mostly with his own money but includes among his donors a few prominent performing artists as well as Filipino President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. and first … [Read more...]
SOTA’s evening of zarzuela a delightful, fitting sendoff for conductor Mielgo
By Robert Croan For the final concerts of his five-year tenure as Symphony of the Americas’ artistic and music director, Pablo Mielgo conducted the music of his native Spain: more specifically, extracts from zarzuelas — that country’s counterpart to the Viennese operetta and the Broadway musical. The concerts in Broward Center’s Amaturo Theater [seen April 20] offered a rare … [Read more...]
Parma Portraits: Ode to caregivers illuminates at Boca Museum of Art
By Sandra Schulman An unexpected near-death experience during the early days of the pandemic has yielded a remarkable series of portraits, drawn by the patient. Donald Farnsworth, an artist who owns a fine art studio that makes vintage paper from Italian Renaissance era techniques, was traveling in Italy in 2022, when he came down with a life-threatening case of COVID-19. … [Read more...]
PB Opera tops itself with stellar ‘Figaro,’ jewel of the season
By Márcio Bezerra Palm Beach Opera closed its 2025 season with a outstanding production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Even by the higher standards set by the company since the pandemic, this one was exceptional, and for many reasons. First produced in 1786, The Marriage of Figaro, as it is known in English, is not only a masterwork in the operatic … [Read more...]
South Florida Symphony, chorus deliver poignant Mozart Requiem
By Robert Croan Contrary to legend, and to Peter Shaffer’s iconic play Amadeus (along with the movie that followed), Italian composer Antonio Salieri did not murder Mozart — nor did he attempt to steal or to take credit for the composition of Mozart’s final, uncompleted Requiem (K. 622). The work was in fact commissioned by a wealthy nobleman, a Count Franz von Walsegg, … [Read more...]
Botanical beauty: The floating flowers of Rory McEwen
By Sandra Schulman Adrift in space, purple tulips waft in whiteness, red roses gleam in unseen sunshine, a red pepper shines with ripeness. These exquisitely painted flora by Rory McEwen are the subject of a current show at The Society of the Four Arts, Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature, which runs through March 30 in the Esther B. O’Keeffe Building. Presented … [Read more...]
London Symphony, violinist Jansen spectacular in Bernstein, Mahler
By Márcio Bezerra This writer had not had to park on the top floor of the garage of the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts for at least the past 10 years! After the big dip in attendance for classical music after the pandemic, it looks as audiences have come back to levels even higher than before the great recession. Thus, one should not feel annoyed, but rather … [Read more...]
Cellist Drachman superb in Brahms, Beethoven at FilAm
By Robert Croan An excellent series that has garnered too little attention is FilAm Music Foundation’s Chamber Music@ Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, at The Community Church on Bougainvillea Drive. The most recent event, on Feb. 22, was a superb recital by cellist Evan Drachman and pianist Victor Santiago Asunción, who is also FilAm’s founder and director. Drachman happens to be … [Read more...]