By Robert Croan Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, one of the most colorful, melodic operas in the repertory and also one of the most difficult to produce, opened the 2024-25 season of The Met: Live in HD—the Metropolitan Opera’s series of high-definition simulcasts in cinemas worldwide – on Oct. 5. The Live in HD showings are an important and valuable part of South … [Read more...]
Legendary UK band Squeeze marks 50th with performance in Pompano
Fifty years together as a band is rare, but the route toward such a golden anniversary isn’t often as circuitous as that of Squeeze (www.squeezeofficial.com). The heady British pop group’s celebratory tour of the United States started in Oregon in mid-August, and includes a stop at Pompano Beach Amphitheatre on Sept. 21. Best-known for late-1970s and early-1980s U.K. and … [Read more...]
‘Not Not Jazz’: Medeski, Martin & Wood doc shortchanges importance of jazz/fusion band
A new phenomenon emerged through the 1990s when keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood (www.medeskimartinandwood.com) created what proved to be the most formidable jazz/fusion act without a stringed instrument since Weather Report. Director Jason Miller’s new Medeski, Martin & Wood documentary, Not Not Jazz (Oscilloscope Laboratories/MVD … [Read more...]
PB Opera taps Netrebko for gala star, courting controversy
By Robert Croan Palm Beach Opera has announced that Russian soprano Anna Netrebko will be the featured guest at the company’s annual Gala, to be held Feb. 5 at The Breakers Palm Beach resort. She will partner with pianist Angel Rodriguez in a recital program to benefit Palm Beach Opera – “An Evening with Anna Netrebko” – and the event will be the singer’s Palm Beach Opera … [Read more...]
Deft Mendelssohn, Ravel performances bring SFSO chamber season to delightful close
By Robert Croan South Florida Symphony’s Summer with the Symphony series --- one monthly chamber music concert in Miami and in Fort Lauderdale --- is the oasis in South Florida’s off-season classical music desert. Responding to this cultural void, an enthusiastic capacity audience filled the attractive auditorium of Fort Lauderdale’s Center for Spiritual development for … [Read more...]
Veteran cover duo Twocan Blue a staple at Boca club
Certain musical gigs that were once frequent have become rare in South Florida. The area nightclub scene is now mostly dominated by open mics, jam nights, karaoke, trivia, stand-up comedy, and singing guitarists who are sometimes accompanied by pre-recorded backing tracks. In essence, anything that club owners and managers can think of where they only have to pay one host or … [Read more...]
Dead tribute band Crazy Fingers teams with Boca Symphonia for free concert
As the year 1970 approached, an up-and-coming British hard rock band called Deep Purple had a crazy idea. With a soaring new vocalist in Ian Gillan and a bassist/producer in Roger Glover replacing Rod Evans and Nick Simper, respectively, even fans forget that the new lineup’s first release wasn’t its 1970 breakthrough studio album Deep Purple in Rock. Rather, it was the … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival plans farewell weekend of concerts this month
After 32 years, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, long a beloved staple of South Florida summers, will come to an end this month. Battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated loss of funds, as well as tiring of the grind of putting together four weekends of concerts, the founders of the festival — flutist Karen Fuller, clarinetist Michael Forte and bassoonist … [Read more...]
Versatility pays off for South Florida musician Greenberg
When it comes to South Florida’s current music scene, area musicians know it’s a jungle out there. Gone are the 20th-century days when one could earn a living locally by exclusively performing within the realm of popular music. So modern success stories usually involve versatility — as in original songwriting plus cover-song acumen, multiple instruments played within … [Read more...]
Russian trios get star treatment from SFSO chamber players
By Robert Croan Once again, the South Florida Symphony has brightened up an otherwise arid musical summer with its superb and valuable chamber music series. The second of three seasonal concerts this year [heard 6/21 at Fort Lauderdale’s Center for Spiritual Development] was devoted to piano trios by Russian composers. The composers were Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Rachmaninov … [Read more...]