By Dennis D. Rooney It was a Saturday in the spring of 1957. I was at my high school, doing some sort of extracurricular project, which took place in the auditorium. The Glee Club director had put on a recording of music I didn’t recognize but whose sound and character were captivating. From time to time, someone would tap out one of the catchy rhythms that sprang up as … [Read more...]
Delray Playhouse’s ‘Same Time, Next Year’ ends season with sweet accomplishment
By Dale King Delray Beach Playhouse is wrapping up its 75th anniversary season with a gem of a show, a production so nicely packaged and executed that it may remain on the minds of audience members until autumn brings a new roster of main stage performances. The showhouse on the east shore of Lake Ida is currently presenting Bernard Slade’s romantic comedy, Same Time, … [Read more...]
Poetry in motion: Steady action, score make for captivating ‘Fellow Travelers’ at FGO
By Rosie Rogers Florida Grand Opera’s production of Gregory Spears’s 2016 opera Fellow Travelers told a Lavender Scare love story with a sweetly melancholic score. With direction from Peter Rothstein, the smooth set changes produced a constant motion well-matched to the minimalism of the orchestra. Starring Hadleigh Adams and Andres Acosta as the two romantic leads, … [Read more...]
FAU’s ‘Richard III’ a formidable reading of the Bard
By Dale King It’s encouraging to see that drama students at Florida Atlantic University haven’t lost their interest in performing plays written several centuries ago, despite interruptions wrought in FAU’s theatrical schedule by COVID-19. The energetic performers in FAU’s Department of Theatre and Dance wrapped up the 2021-22 season with a formidable performance of … [Read more...]
Cellist Herbert, ACO close season with satisfying Tchaikovsky, Wolf
By Dennis D. Rooney Music of Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) opened the Alantic Classical Orchestra's final concert of this season, which I heard at its second performance April 21 at the Eissey Campus Theatre at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens. Like Schumann, Donizetti, and Smetana, Wolf was infected with syphilis and eventually made mad by it. Despite his short … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Opera gets $6 million gift; announces 2022-23 season
WEST PALM BEACH — Palm Beach Opera has received a gift of $6 million from a local foundation, the largest donation in the opera company’s 61-year history. The gift, announced last week, will allow Palm Beach Opera to move forward with renovations on its new home in the artsy Northwood section of West Palm Beach. The company announced in September it had bought an … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony’s closing concert satisfies with Midori, Schuman
By Dennis D. Rooney The final program of this season’s Palm Beach Sympony Masterworks Series, which took place April 10 in the Kravis Center's Dreyfoos Hall, was well-balanced and enjoyed by the (largely un-masked) audience. Among the many important commissions made by conductor André Kostelanetz is William Schuman’s New England Triptych, subtitled "Three Pieces for … [Read more...]
Emerging Miami Worldcenter curates transformational art program
By Sandra Schulman Miami is being reborn --- again --- as a major arts and technology center. The rapid pace of development has created mini-cities downtown and in the surrounding areas. Now the second-largest urban mixed-use development in America, just behind New York City’s Hudson Yards on the Hudson River, the 27-acre “city within a city” Miami Worldcenter is … [Read more...]
Thomas’s towering performance leads strong ‘Rigoletto’ at FGO
By Rosie Rogers Directed by Kathleen Belcher, Florida Grand Opera’s most recent production of Verdi’s Rigoletto -- seen at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale on March 31 -- was enjoyable overall, with experienced baritone Todd Thomas in the title role elevating the show. Placed in its traditional setting, long trains of dresses, towering stone walls, and a multicolored … [Read more...]
Lake Worth Playhouse’s ‘Wizard of Oz’ tracks movie and book classic agreeably
By Dale King For most of us in the age-55-and-over bracket, a visit to “the merry old land of Oz” used to be a once-a-year excursion provided by one of the three sole TV networks that broadcast the classic 1939 film of author L. Frank Baum’s fanciful story, The Wizard of Oz, on our 12-channel, antenna-on-the-roof television sets. Today, folks can find the same video … [Read more...]