PALM BEACH – The Society for the Four Arts has extended its current exhibit, Recapturing the Real West: The Collections of William I. Koch, for a second time following an unprecedented response from the public.
The Koch exhibit will remain open at the Society’s Esther O’Keeffe Gallery through May 13, officials said this week. More than 20,000 people have seen the exhibit since it opened Feb. 4, making it the most successful art installation at the Society since its founding in 1936. It had been scheduled to close April 15.
Society officials also have added five more curatorial talks from a member of Koch’s team. The talks are set for 2:30 p.m. May 1, 2, 8, and 10, and 10:30 a.m. and noon May 5. Reservations are now being accepted.
One of the prize features of the exhibit is the only known image of the outlaw Billy the Kid, taken in 1879 or 1880. Koch paid $2.3 million for the ferrotype in an auction last year.
Admission to the exhibit is $5. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 561-655-7226 or visit www.fourarts.org.
Palm Beach Opera names Hirsch managing director
WEST PALM BEACH – Veteran lighting designer and production chief Greg Hirsch was appointed the managing director of the Palm Beach Opera this week, officials said.
Hirsch, 66, who served as production director in the just-concluded season, will be responsible for the company’s daily operations as well as all production aspects of the West Palm Beach-based opera company’s shows. The appointment is effective immediately.
Appointing a managing director will allow General Director Daniel Biaggi to concentrate on long-term strategy for the company as well as fundraising, according to a news release.
Hirsch, who worked as a lighting designer at Palm Beach Opera in the 1970s, has worked on almost 400 different productions in the course of his career, and has served as production director at the Portland, San Diego, Dallas and Tulsa operas. He is the winner of awards from Drama-Logue awards and the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle.
The Palm Beach Opera’s 2012-13 season will include Verdi’s La Traviata in January, Rossini’s La Cenerentola (with Vivica Genaux) in February, and Richard Strauss’ Salome (with Erika Sunngårdh) in March. A Young Artists production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw is scheduled for April.
For more information, call 833-7888 or visit www.pbopera.org.
Maltz puts special engagements on sale May 7
JUPITER – The Maltz Jupiter Theatre will begin selling tickets May 7 for its limited engagements and special shows, which will include a student production of The Laramie Project and appearances by Roger McGuinn and John Pizzarelli.
The coming season will mark the Maltz’s 10th anniversary, and in honor of that, officials are bringing back limited-engagement shows that have had sold-out audiences, including jazz guitarist Pizzarelli (March 27), the Celtic Tenors (March 18), and a New Year’s Eve show from the Washington, D.C., parody troupe the Capitol Steps.
Also included in the list of special engagements is a Nov. 16 benefit concert from the Stan Kenton Tribute Orchestra, directed by Dennis Noday, which will perform the big-band classics associated with the hard-driving Kenton, whose career flourished in the 1940s.
A high school production of Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project is planned for Sept. 8, and on Oct. 12, the company will present a family musical production of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. Other theatrical specials include Defending the Caveman (Jan. 14), Late Nite Catechism (Jan. 20) and an appearance by Second City (March 10).
Tickets for the upcoming shows go on sale May 7. Call 561-575-2223 or visit www.jupitertheatre.org.
The 2012-13 season of mainstage productions at the Maltz consists of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus (Oct. 30-Nov. 11); Meredith Willson’s The Music Man (Nov. 27-Dec. 16); Singin’ in the Rain (Jan. 8-27); John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt (Feb. 5-17); and Jeanine Tesori’s Thoroughly Modern Millie (March 5-24).
Seraphic Fire to bring back ‘Dido,’ ‘Messiah’ in 11th season
MIAMI – Seraphic Fire, the professional concert choir that was nominated for two Grammy awards earlier this year, will be bringing back presentations of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and George Frideric Handel’s Messiah for its 11th season.
The choir founded by Patrick Dupré Quigley in 2002 also will be returning for another season to its new Palm Beach County venue, St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton, and will present its Christmas concert for the first time in Palm Beach Gardens, when it appears Dec. 8 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
Dido and Aeneas will be performed Feb. 22-24 (Feb. 24 in Boca Raton), and Messiah will be presented Dec. 21-23 (Dec. 21 in Boca). The 11th season will open with American choral works (Oct. 17-21), followed Nov. 14-18 by a program devoted to settings of the Psalms by J.S. Bach, Claudio Monteverdi, Johann Pachelbel (Jauchzet dem Herrn) and Virgil Thomson (My Shepherd Will Supply My Need).
The group’s Candlelight Christmas concerts, which will feature Franz Gruber’s Silent Night as a centerpiece, will be presented Dec. 12-16, and the new year will open with a program of Gregorian chant devoted to the Virgin Mary (Jan. 16-20).
Soprano Kathryn Mueller, a regular member of the choir, will be the featured soloist March 20-24 in an all-Vivaldi program of cantatas, and the choir marks the 500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon’s arrival in Florida with a concert of music from Spain’s Golden Age (April 10-14).
The 2013 season will conclude with a concert of “cathedral classics,” in which concertgoers will get to decide which help decide part of the program, which will include the Miserere of Gregorio Allegri and the Alleluia of American composer Randall Thompson (May 8-12, 2013).
For more information, call 305-285-9060, or visit www. seraphic fire.org.
The choir concludes its current season May 9-13 with Treasures of the Mission Road, a concert of music from the Baroque era in Latin America. The concert at St. Gregory’s is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 10.