By Dale King If you’re planning to attend Festival of the Arts Boca in 2020, you have just a shade less than a year to gather up 250 birthday candles. While commenting on the recently concluded 2019 Festival of the Arts Boca, which wrapped up March 10 on a literal high note with a performance by jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and his blazing-hot sextet, Festival Director … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Frida’ a brilliant, energetic read on iconic Mexican artist
By Robert Croan Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s 1991 opera, Frida – based on the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo – requires only 15 singers (some in double roles) and an orchestra of six to 11 players, but the brilliant, kinetic Florida Grand Opera production that opened last weekend in the Miramar Cultural Center, seemed huge. The energy level soared from first note to … [Read more...]
Violinist Znaider thrills Broward audience at Brussels Philharmonic appearance
By Robert Croan A British critic has described Guillaume Connesson’s Flammenschrift (Written in Fire) as “Beethoven on speed,” not intending it to be taken as a compliment. On hearing the French composer’s nine-minute homage to Beethoven played by the Brussels Philharmonic in Broward Center (March 13), I would agree with the epithet – however, in an entirely positive, not … [Read more...]
Opera on life of artist Kahlo ‘bright and beautiful,’ soprano Jones says
By Robert Croan The turbulent life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-54) reads like a secular passion play about a troubled human being who suffered poverty, childhood polio and a horrific tram accident that left her in lifelong pain. In her paintings, Kahlo depicted herself as an anguished Madonna. No less important in her life, however, were her political views (a … [Read more...]
Kultur Fest’s ‘My Fair Lady’ proves delightful
By Dale King When the Florida Atlantic University Libraries and the Jewish Cultural Society join forces to put together their annual Kultur Festival, they always come up with a fascinating sample of musical theater to kick off the event on FAU’s Boca Raton campus. The co-sponsors’ selection of My Fair Lady to open this year’s 10th annual celebration of Jewish music and … [Read more...]
March 2019 calendar of events
(Note: Events are listed through April 5, 2019, and were current as of Feb. 22. Please check with the presenting agency for any changes. Ticket prices are single sales. Most of the presenting organizations offer subscription plans.) Art Exhibits Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens: Through May 5: An Eye for Nature: Paintings and Prints by Morton Kaish, works by the American … [Read more...]
CSO, Muti show how Beethoven should go
By Dennis D. Rooney The audience in the Kravis Center’s Dreyfoos Hall to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday night seemed the usual assortment of mostly middle-aged and older listeners. However, I do hope that some children and young people attended so that they might experience the sound of a major orchestra under an eminent conductor in music of Ludwig van … [Read more...]
Pink Martini and Nu Deco Ensemble: Bending genres, building community
By Christina Wood You won’t find many places where people of diverse opinions gather peacefully these days. Where young and old sit, amicably, side by side. Where people come together – regardless of labels or affiliations – to celebrate life. With Pink Martini and the Nu Deco Ensemble both performing, this year’s Festival of the Arts Boca might be an exception. The … [Read more...]
Student theater: Compelling ‘Mill Fire’ at FAU
By Dale King Mill Fire is a horrific, haunting and deeply emotional play, a story of Birmingham, Ala., a steel town on the skids circa 1977; a massive, deadly fire and explosion in an apparently malfunctioning steel mill furnace that kills five workers; and the chaos the disaster inflicts on a community whose populace is already at the edge of upheaval. The script, by … [Read more...]
Jewelry, Art and Antique Show stuns, overwhelms
By Myles Ludwig Glorious. At some point in the fifth hour of my three-day trip into the enchanted forests of Artlandia, standing in the aisles of great hall, I sensed a shiver of collective Stendhal syndrome, as if a powerful aesthetic spirit might levitate the Convention Center, drawing it up into the cerulean sky above the city of West Palm Beach. The Palm Beach … [Read more...]