Not all that long ago, Ballet Florida had established a tradition of an elaborate and beautiful production of The Nutcracker that audiences here looked forward to each Christmas season. That company is long gone, and along with it the Marie Hale version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, which had a wonderful bit of stage business at the end with Marie and The Nutcracker Prince … [Read more...]
Serkin brings old-school taste, distinction to Mozart, Bach
We are living through a period of remarkable pianism, with terrific young players popping up everywhere you look and making impressive strides in rethinking concerts and willing new repertoire into being. But there is also a good deal of hype to go along with that, amplified enormously by the power of social media. And so it is something of a respite to encounter an artist … [Read more...]
Boca Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ aims high, succeeds
As ballets go, The Nutcracker is something like a variety show at Alexander III’s House of Vaudeville: It has very little story but an endlessly diverting lineup of different kinds of dance, most notably in the second act. Which surely helps account for the ballet’s popularity in the United States, beginning in the World War II years, but then taking off after George … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire triumphs in challenging look at American hymnody
In its decade and a half of concertizing in South Florida, Seraphic Fire has occasionally featured concerts drawing on the music of the American church, usually that arising from the Protestant and African-American traditions of the 19th century. In its second concert of the season, the Miami choir again turned to American hymnody, but in the program assembled by guest … [Read more...]
Fine singing triumphs over spare production at FGO’s ‘Lucia’
Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor has returned to Florida Grand Opera for the third time in a dozen years, opening the Miami company’s 77th season with a visually stripped-down but well-sung production of this 1835 bel canto favorite. The production itself, which has no built set, comes from Houston Grand Opera and was designed by Britain’s Liz Ascroft to be sung in … [Read more...]
Master Chorale takes step forward with Duruflé, new work
As it begins its 15th season of concerts, the Master Chorale of South Florida has added another element to its music-making, that of commissioner of new work. On Sunday, the community chorale presented the first piece in what promises to be an annual series of new choral works with a setting of John Donne’s "Death Be Not Proud," composed by James Kallembach, who heads the … [Read more...]
‘Requiems for dying things’: Artist Guariglia chronicles man’s inhumanity to Earth
The digital technology explosion has turned everyone into a photographer, and the mushrooming of social media means the world is awash in an infinity of images. That’s why the photographer and artist Justin Brice Guariglia wanted to do more to than simply document the effect of man’s activities on the Earth, and climate change in particular, than simply present the kinds of … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire opens with brilliant, vigorous Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi was a man ahead of his time, a trailblazer in the then-new form of opera and a composer who approached his mostly vocal output with fealty to the words and a concern for their expressive power that was paramount. To begin its 16th season of concerts, the Seraphic Fire choral group presented about an hour’s worth of excerpts from Monteverdi’s 1640 … [Read more...]
‘Tesla’ makes strong impression in premiere
Next month, a movie called The Current War will debut, chronicling the struggle between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse for the electrical system – direct or alternating current – that would power the looming industrial future. The movie also includes Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-born advocate of AC power who also dreamed big about bringing energy to the entire globe for … [Read more...]
Arts Preview 2017-18: The season in classical music
It’s always a source of wonder to look over the classical season each year. Few other parts of the country have such an abundant menu of stellar performers, risk-taking groups and leading international orchestras, all of them stuffed into a relatively short season. And if you don’t have three or four options you’re trying to choose from every weekend in January, February and … [Read more...]