Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, which I heard Saturday at Palm Beach Opera, had a last-minute replacement tenor, Richard Troxell, filling in for the indisposed Bruno Ribeiro. The high tessitura of Romeo’s part proved difficult for Troxell on occasion, especially in the first two acts. However, he rallied and won the hearts and minds of the audience with a courageous second-half … [Read more...]
Scarlett’s ‘Viscera’ a stunning triumph for MCB
Edward Villella is getting a tremendous sendoff as he eases out of his role as artistic director of the Miami City Ballet, the company he founded 26 years ago. And the rest of us? We get to revel in his company’s brilliant success. A packed house Saturday at the Kravis Center was treated to one of the world-premiere performances of Viscera, a piece created especially for the … [Read more...]
Capalbo triumphs in second cast of PB Opera’s ‘Butterfly’
In all my years of going to hear Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, I have never heard a better interpretation than that of Canadian soprano Michele Capalbo, who sang the lead role of Cio-Cio San on Saturday at Palm Beach Opera. Capalbo led the company’s “B” cast; the “A” cast opened Palm Beach Opera’s 50th season the night before. Taking on such demanding lead roles means opera … [Read more...]
Under Tebar, Palm Beach Symphony makes big strides
What a difference a year makes: Conductor Ramón Tebar has improved the quality of the Palm Beach Symphony by sheer force of will and good leadership. This happy band has jumped 10 notches on the Richter scale of music-making; it is unrecognizable from the orchestra we heard last year. At the opening concert of the season Wednesday night at the Society of the Four Arts, the … [Read more...]
New Adès work thrills, but Emerson deserved better from audience
They stand to play, all except for cellist David Finckel. In that, they were just like the youngsters from Palm Springs Middle School who serenaded concertgoers with Christmas carols in the lobby of the Kravis Center on Wednesday night. But there the comparisons end. The four inside the hall were the Emerson String Quartet, who have been together for 35 years. They still … [Read more...]
At Tanglewood, a sublime ‘Orlando’
LENOX, Mass. -- Conductor Nicholas McGegan brought San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra to Tanglewood about two weeks ago to perform Handel’s rarely given opera Orlando in Ozawa Hall. Home of the Boston Symphony in the summer, Tanglewood is where James Levine, as music director, dazzled opera lovers in last year’s mounting of Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. Alas, he left … [Read more...]
Sarasota Opera season highlighted by brilliant ‘Crucible’
Sarasota Opera’s season in February and March each year has three weekends to suit the traveling operagoer. This year’s offerings were Don Giovanni, The Crucible, La Bohème and I Lombardi. I wasn’t able to attend La Bohème, but here are summaries of the rest of the Sarasota season: The Crucible A sprightly 93-year-old Robert Ward came to Sarasota to hear the … [Read more...]
Staging, weak Cavaradossi mar second cast of PBO’s ‘Tosca’
There are times when the stronger regional opera companies mount Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca to exploit every emotion: love, hate, seduction, torture and betrayal. Each is accented and the audiences go home satisfied. This was not one of them. Palm Beach Opera’s version, directed by Massimo Gasparon, had none of the blood lust one associates with this opera: Tosca’s knife, a … [Read more...]
Second ‘Cosi’ cast shows off voices of great promise
This refined, delicate, good-looking production of Mozart’s Così fan Tutte, with swaths of brilliantly lit open spaces, marble statues and lovely costumes, harks back to productions at the Salzburg Festival in 1982 -- even down to the same sunshade beach umbrella. There’s nothing wrong with that: Imitation is the finest form of flattery, after all. It shows the careful … [Read more...]
MCB makes splendid showing in Kravis program
Twenty-five years can be like a lifetime for a ballet company. First there were the early struggles with fundraising, performing without an orchestra, then finding the corps de ballet, the soloists, the prima ballerinas and the male danseurs. Plus administrators, ballet teachers, accountants and yes, even doctors specializing in bone injuries. It’s exhausting, but the Miami … [Read more...]