By Robert Croan Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, one of the most colorful, melodic operas in the repertory and also one of the most difficult to produce, opened the 2024-25 season of The Met: Live in HD—the Metropolitan Opera’s series of high-definition simulcasts in cinemas worldwide – on Oct. 5. The Live in HD showings are an important and valuable part of South … [Read more...]
Delray Playhouse spices up summer’s end with dazzling ‘Chorus Line’
By Dale King Delray Beach Playhouse has set up its main stage for “one singular sensation” — the musical A Chorus Line — which has returned to South Florida for a three-week summer run that already packed DBP’s audience space and drew standing ovations at opening shows in its first weekend. The production — conceived and originally directed and choreographed by esteemed … [Read more...]
PB Opera taps Netrebko for gala star, courting controversy
By Robert Croan Palm Beach Opera has announced that Russian soprano Anna Netrebko will be the featured guest at the company’s annual Gala, to be held Feb. 5 at The Breakers Palm Beach resort. She will partner with pianist Angel Rodriguez in a recital program to benefit Palm Beach Opera – “An Evening with Anna Netrebko” – and the event will be the singer’s Palm Beach Opera … [Read more...]
Deft Mendelssohn, Ravel performances bring SFSO chamber season to delightful close
By Robert Croan South Florida Symphony’s Summer with the Symphony series --- one monthly chamber music concert in Miami and in Fort Lauderdale --- is the oasis in South Florida’s off-season classical music desert. Responding to this cultural void, an enthusiastic capacity audience filled the attractive auditorium of Fort Lauderdale’s Center for Spiritual development for … [Read more...]
‘School of Rock’ a crowd-pleaser at Lake Worth Playhouse
By Dale King In the real world, school won’t start for at least a few more weeks, maybe even a month. But in the realm of stage musicals, School of Rock opened this past weekend at the Lake Worth Playhouse. Its “semester” runs just three weeks, but lots of songs, antics, expectations, rules for proper in-class behavior and family relationships are packed into its … [Read more...]
Russian trios get star treatment from SFSO chamber players
By Robert Croan Once again, the South Florida Symphony has brightened up an otherwise arid musical summer with its superb and valuable chamber music series. The second of three seasonal concerts this year [heard 6/21 at Fort Lauderdale’s Center for Spiritual Development] was devoted to piano trios by Russian composers. The composers were Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Rachmaninov … [Read more...]
DeSantis cuts all arts and culture funding in Florida, leaving PB County in shock
By Sharon Geltner On June 3, Bill Hayes, producing artistic director of Palm Beach Dramaworks, was ecstatic. That was the day the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce honored his West Palm beach-based theater company as Nonprofit of the Year. “That was a nice lead-in to our 25th anniversary,” Hayes said. But within 10 days, his joy turned to shock. On June 12, for … [Read more...]
At FAU Summer Rep: Excellent cast sustains overlong ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’
By Dale King Summer may be a slack season for many students. But not for the actor wannabes in Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Theatre and Dance. They’ve spent weeks gearing up for perhaps their busiest time of the year – the annual two-play Summer Repertory Theater Festival. The first show, a high-energy production of Peter and the Starcatcher, opened in the … [Read more...]
A buzzy flora and fauna show at the Cultural Council
By Sandra Schulman In a bee-utiful show that would make flower master Georgia O’Keeffe proud, Beyond Blossoms: The Power of Pollinators is open through June 22, and features the work of 43 Palm Beach County-based artists at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach in Lake Worth Beach. Pollinators are, simply put, the birds – but mostly bees — that flock to the sexy … [Read more...]
Brilliant Fauré, Brahms performances at SFSO chamber opener
By Robert Croan The first-desk players of South Florida Symphony Orchestra are not an official ensemble, like, say, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center or the Beaux Arts Trio. They get together each summer for a series of three modest monthly concerts — each performed in two South Florida venues — which provide some of the best classical music to be heard in this … [Read more...]