The finale of Don Pasquale, at Florida Grand Opera. (Photo by Lorne Grandison) Two of this area’s opera companies bookended the season with Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, with the Palm Beach Opera doing a 17th-century take on the early 19th-century setting in which this 1842 opera was initially set. The production of Don Pasquale now showing at Florida Grand Opera in … [Read more...]
Opera review: Baritones win the day at PB Opera’s vocal competition
Joo Won Kang won first place in the advanced division.By Greg StepanichFor the Grand Finals of the Palm Beach Opera’s annual vocal competition this year, technical accomplishment appeared to matter most to the panel of four judges.Baritone Joo Won Kang of Seoul, South Korea, won the top prize in the advanced division (for ages 24-30), and bass-baritone Brandon … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 8-12
The Arrival (2008), by Jose Alvarez.Art: The Norton Museum of Art has opened an exhibit of contemporary art featuring works by artists whose perception of the world around is refracted in unusual but precise ways. Altered States, which opened Saturday and runs through July 17, shows work by four artists – Jose Alvarez, Yayoi Kusama, Fred Tomaselli and Leo … [Read more...]
Opera review: Brilliant ‘Crucible’ highlighted Sarasota Opera season
Heather Johnson as Elizabeth Proctorand Sean Anderson as John Proctor, in The Crucible.Editor's note: This story has been reposted to correct errors.By Rex Hearn 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 … [Read more...]
Opera review: Soprano Taigi shines in PB Opera’s ‘Tosca’
Chiara Taigi and Riccardo Massi in Tosca.By Greg StepanichGood singing can get an opera audience past uninspired acting, but when it comes to the heroine of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, it’s best to have someone who can do both well.And on Friday night, Palm Beach Opera did.In the Italian soprano Chiara Taigi, who opened its current run of Puccini’s “shabby … [Read more...]
Opera review: Second ‘Cosi’ cast shows off voices of great promise
Patricia Risley and Joel Prieto in Così fan Tutte. By Rex HearnThis 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: … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 25-27
Sabina Cvilak, David Adam Moore, Matteo Peirone, Norman Shankle and Jurgita Adamonytein Cosi fan Tutte.Music: Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote three operas with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Palm Beach Opera has presented the first two – Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni – over the past two seasons. Tonight, the company presents the last of the Mozart/Da Ponte … [Read more...]
Opera review: Inventive production, fresh singers make most of PB Opera’s ‘Orfeo’
Anthony Roth Costanzo in Orfeo ed Euridice.By Greg StepanichYou have to give Palm Beach Opera credit for knowing how to fall back on basic theatrical precepts when faced with having to present fewer mainstage productions than it wants to.Actually, it’s hard to tell that this is a company that has cut one full production, so varied and diverse have been the shows offered … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Dec. 10-12
Dmitri Belosselskiy as Zaccaria in Palm Beach Opera’s Nabucco.Music: The Palm Beach Opera opens its 49th season tonight with Nabucco, the opera that made Giuseppe Verdi’s career back in 1842. It’s the first mounting of this opera by the company in 25 years, and they’ve secured a host of singers with experience at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in opera
Anthony Roth Costanzo,who will sing Orfeo for Palm Beach Opera.(Illustration by Pat Crowley) By Greg StepanichSouth Florida’s two chief opera companies mostly played it safe at the box office last season when it came to repertoire, with dueling productions of Bizet’s Carmen closing both companies’ offerings.But Palm Beach Opera and Florida Grand Opera also took some … [Read more...]