Miami City Ballet dancers in Baker’s Dozen.(Photo by Kyle Froman)Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct factual errors.By Rex HearnTwenty-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 … [Read more...]
Theater feature: Take it from Mel: ‘Young Frankenstein’ is a ‘damn good’ show
Synthia Link, Christopher Ryan, Cory English, Joanna Glushak and Preston Truman Boyd in Young Frankenstein, opening today at the Kravis Center.By Hap ErsteinIf he does say so himself, and he does, Mel Brooks considers Young Frankenstein to be the best of the 12 films he has directed.“I’m not saying it’s my funniest, I’m saying it’s my best. In terms of … [Read more...]
Music review: Colossal ‘Requiem’ at PB Opera proves hugely enjoyable
Bruno Aprea leads the Verdi Requiem on Sunday. By Greg StepanichEven if you hear it by playing a YouTube video through the tinny speakers built into your laptop, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem makes an overwhelming impression.So much more overwhelming was it, then, to see the massive chorus and orchestra lined up on stage Sunday afternoon at the Kravis Center … [Read more...]
Music feature: Violinist Ehnes, Toronto SO launch tour of Florida
Violinist James Ehnes.By Greg StepanichThe promoters of this week’s Toronto Symphony concerts might not have noticed it, but the program and its presenters make up something of an international accord between the two big federal republics of North America.So says James Ehnes, a violinist from Manitoba and a dual citizen of Canada and the United States who … [Read more...]
Theater feature: ‘Beauty’ team lightens, rethinks Broadway favorite
Justin Glaser and Liz Shivener in Beauty and the Beast.(Photo by Peter Coombs) By Hap ErsteinOn the second day of 2011, Disney’s The Lion King surpassed Beauty and the Beast to become the seventh longest-running show ever on Broadway.That takes the media conglomerate’s first venture in the high-risk world of New York commercial theater down a peg, but when you run … [Read more...]
Music reviews: Fine new music for cello; PB Symphony charms; Delray Quartet advances
Justin Dello Joio.Carter Brey and Christopher O’Riley (Dec. 19, Kravis Center)World premieres are always special, but they don’t always suggest that they will make a lasting impact on the culture.But composer Justin Dello Joio’s Due per Due, which was given its debut by cellist Carter Brey and pianist Christopher O’Riley, is a worthy new work that … [Read more...]
Music review: Piano trio’s Florida debut offers multi-style mastery
Emanuel Wehse, Catherine Klipfel and Stefan Hempel of the Morgenstern Trio.By Greg StepanichThe piano trio literature is perhaps richer than it might otherwise appear at first mental blush, and there are some great works in this genre that are too little-known to general audiences.That can surely be said of the Piano Trio (in G minor, Op. 15) composed in 1855 … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 26-30
A scene from a past Florida Classical Ballet Theatreproduction of The Nutcracker.Dance: Let the Nutcrackers begin: Today marks the beginning of the annual productions of the ballet Peter Tchaikovsky scored in 1892, a year before his death, and while the composer thought his work was inferior to his other ballets, generations of dancers, choreographers … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Riveting ‘Angry Men,’ half-accomplished ‘Cane’
The cast of Twelve Angry Men. By Hap ErsteinThe “golden age of television” of the 1950s produced many classic dramas that went on to further acclaim in other media.Think of Requiem for a Heavyweight, or Marty, or The Miracle Worker. Certainly earning a spot on that list is Reginald Rose’s dramatized civics lesson, Twelve Angry Men, which the Maltz Jupiter … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in jazz
Chris Botti. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Bill MeredithSouth Florida's creative jazz concert calendar is always a case of feast or famine, and there's usually more of a feast south of Palm Beach County.That's partly because there's a stronger jazz nightclub presence in the Fort Lauderdale and Miami areas than on the practically nonexistent West Palm Beach scene. And … [Read more...]