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...]
Mehta still formidable with Israel Phil, but energy fades for ‘Heldenleben’
By Dennis D. Rooney Zubin Mehta has long been associated with The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and was named its music director for life in 1981. The announcement of his forthcoming retirement made his tour appearance with the orchestra Saturday night at the Kravis Center something more than that; in fact, a valediction. Mehta will turn 83 next year, and his appearance … [Read more...]
Flutist Torres straddling worlds of jazz and classical
By Christina Wood Néstor Torres has been a very busy man. In addition to his usual schedule of concerts and collaborations, the Latin jazz flutist released two new recordings this year. It doesn’t look like he’ll be slowing down any time soon, either. He’ll be back in Palm Beach County on Nov. 11, when he appears with Jon Secada in two shows at the Boca Raton Resort … [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...]
Yes (featuring ARW) delivers classic catalog powerfully to large Kravis crowd
Nearing the 50-year anniversary of its 1968 formation in London, iconic progressive rock band Yes suffered a fracture in 2008, splitting into two separate acts that continue to feature longtime members. The only reuniting since was a one-off performance in April, at the 2017 Yes induction ceremony into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One current version, still simply called … [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...]
Arts Preview 2017-18: The season in jazz
A pleasant sense of unpredictability has crept into the 2017-2018 South Florida jazz season, as younger, rising singers and players (Gregory Porter, Jon Batiste) and gifted female vocalists and instrumentalists (Tierney Sutton, Anat Cohen) dot the landscape, especially south of Palm Beach County. And even some of the more recurrent acts, like the Marsalis brothers — … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2017-18: The season in opera
South Florida’s opera companies have made the transition from the model of opera companies that has obtained since the Roosevelts, Vanderbilts and Morgans helped found New York’s Metropolitan Opera House in 1880. Back then, opera was about society as much as it was the music. Twenty years ago in this area, opera-going was still in that Gilded Age mode: Anyone who was anyone … [Read more...]