Since 2008, Guanabanas in Jupiter has stood out among South Florida nightclubs through the mix of its tropical atmosphere, a gourmet menu featuring fresh local seafood, and an emphasis on live music that includes bookings of unique artists from local to international — plus a state-of-the-art sound system that limits volume to accommodate the city’s strict noise … [Read more...]
PBCMF 3: A Dutch rarity, and chamber music from a film composer
The fascist darkness that covered the world of the 1930s and 1940s had well-documented effects on artistic life, and while we now celebrate the artists whose work either survived or reflected it, there were many other creators whose efforts are now shrouded in obscurity. Such a one was Rosalie Wertheim, a Dutchwoman whose gender worked against her as a composer and whose … [Read more...]
Soloists, new work provide mega-meal at Miami Music Festival
MIAMI BEACH — You can’t say Michael Rossi doesn’t give you enough to listen to. Saturday night at the New World Center, the head of the Miami Music Festival presented an orchestral concert dedicated to the eminent Polish-born violinist Ida Haendel that featured parts and wholes of five concertos, a massive tone poem and a world premiere. In addition, there was a presentation … [Read more...]
Ambitious Mainly Mozart finale doesn’t always work
By Kevin Wilt The Miami Chamber Music Society closed out its 2015-2016 season with the Mainly Mozart Festival, which opened with the namesake composer, but featured many others. The first work on the July 1 program was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate (K. 165). Taking the stage for the performance was a string quartet made up of members of the Metropolitan … [Read more...]
PB Chamber Fest 2: Rare Bruch and new McAlister
Over the past 30 years, the world of contemporary classical composition has moved, like so many things in our digital culture, into niches. There are hardcore atonalists, minimalists, New Romantics, and eclectics of every description vying for the ears of a busy audience. But in the United States, this flowering of different styles comes after the establishment in the … [Read more...]
This could be the start of something Wagner-big
It’s been more than 20 years since Miami’s opera company did any works by Richard Wagner, and it’s been even longer for Palm Beach Opera, so it was something of a truly special event Saturday night when the Miami Music Festival gave the first concert by its new Wagner Institute. Designed by festival founder Michael Rossi to develop voices for the demands of Wagner … [Read more...]
Promising, but rough-edged, Mahler at Miami Music Festival
Yuriy Bekker MIAMI SHORES — It takes some serious ambition to open your first concert with a Mahler symphony, but that’s exactly what the students in the current Miami Music Festival did Saturday night. The orchestral program of the 3-year-old festival, which is presenting opera, chamber music and symphonic literature through July 31 at several Miami-area venues, made its … [Read more...]
PB Chamber Fest 1: Mozart concerto, chamber-style, enchants
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), as painted by Barbara Krafft in 1819. The piano concertos of Mozart work well in chamber settings, as has been demonstrated by none other than the composer himself, who arranged several of them for piano and string quartet. This past weekend, members of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival did that one better with a reduced version of … [Read more...]
‘Motor City’ gives Broward Stage Door an unforgettable groove
Gabrielle Graham, Alexandria Lugo, Mimi J., Joshua Graham, Jar'Davion Brown and Elijah Word in The Soul of Motor City at Broward Stage Door Theatre. (Photo by George Wentzler) By Dale King Musicals have reigned supreme this year at the Broward Stage Door Theatre in Margate. Not just the traditional ones, with actors, dialogue, songs and fancy sets. No, the powers-that-be … [Read more...]
Mezzo stands out in Ravel; cast charms in ‘Schicchi’ at Miami Music Festival
Isabel Signoret (center front) as The Child with the cast of L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. (Photo by Kristin Pulido) The operatic repertory is vast and rich, and some of its greatest gems can be found in shorter pieces. That’s not to say we hear them all that often in South Florida, so the Miami Music Festival’s mounting of two one-act masterpieces that almost never turn up … [Read more...]