Opera: It’s hard to imagine a more challenging subject than that of the Polish-Soviet composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s 1968 opera, The Passenger. Written for the Bolshoi but shelved, it was not performed until 2010, when it made its sensational debut at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Tonight, Florida Grand Opera brings that David Pountney-directed production to the Ziff Ballet … [Read more...]
Boca Ballet Theatre to mark 25th with stars they fostered
By Dale King Boca Ballet’s executive director, Dan Guin, feverishly pulled together copies of Dance Magazine covers from the past several years that were strewn across his desk. “He performed here,” he said, poking his finger at the photo of a familiar dance artist. “She did, too,” he said, pointing at another. Guin repeated this action again and again until he singled 27 … [Read more...]
Lalami at Boca fest: History, as seen through the eyes of the Other
By Myles Ludwig The cultural construct of the Other is a convenient paradox. On the one hand, the Other allows us to individuate ourselves and stake a personal claim on our own identity. One the other hand, in the best Talmudic tradition, it’s a pretty handy hat rack for our top-of-the-mind hates, prejudices, laments of every kind and description based on race, class, hair … [Read more...]
The war that never ends: Historian Winter to discuss WWI at Festival of the Arts Boca
French soldiers in the trenches during World War I. Imagine a world in which Great Britain and Germany are the major powers, and the United States and Russia are only minor players on the global scene. It’s a world of relatively conservative politics, where there was no World War II, no Holocaust, and no one but their families had ever heard of Adolf Hitler or Vladimir … [Read more...]
Symphonia Boca Raton gets season off to boisterous start
An energized and muscular Symphonia Boca Raton opened its new season Sunday afternoon with a spirited appearance by a guest conductor and violin soloist who made the most of a mostly meat-and-potatoes program. Alastair Willis, who is closing his tenure this coming year as the conductor of the young Illinois Symphony (which plays in Springfield and Bloomington), led the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Sept. 4-7
Theater: Fort Lauderdale’s Thinking Cap Theatre has produced the area premiere of Dave Hanson’s clever Waiting for Waiting for Godot, a takeoff on Samuel Beckett’s highly influential existential comedy. Set backstage at a playhouse where Waiting for Godot is being performed, this wry tale stuffed with inside show business jokes focuses on two understudies who while away the … [Read more...]
Boca Ballet’s salute to summer sparkles
By Dale King Boca Ballet Theatre wrapped up its 24th season with two memorable performances Aug. 1 and 2 that brought a diversity of talent, elegance and comedy to the stage of the University Theatre at Florida Atlantic University. It featured some top-notch professional dancers along with the 32 aspiring performers from the United States and Canada who were finishing up … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 23-24
Film: For those obsessing over growing old, Swedish director Felix Herngren serves up a puckish comedy, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, starring a renowned comic actor from his country, Robert Gustafsson, as a man who makes his escape from his nursing home just as he approaches his century mark. He does indeed slip out a window and relives his … [Read more...]
Zehr brings standout Aurora to Boca Ballet
A leading Florida-born, Boca Raton-trained ballerina made a three-show stop at Boca Ballet Theatre for the company’s mounting of The Sleeping Beauty this past weekend, and demonstrated how to put the “prima” in prima ballerina. But even though Bridgett Zehr’s performance as Aurora in Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet was nothing short of sensational Sunday afternoon, there were … [Read more...]
Leading dancers to star in Boca Ballet’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’
Two major ballet dancers will be starring with the Boca Ballet Theatre this month in the company’s production of The Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky and Petipa’s 1890 classic drawn from Charles Perrault’s Mother Goose tales. Dancing the lead role of Aurora will be Bridgett Zehr, a Sarasota-born, Harid-trained dancer who has been a principal dancer with the National Ballet of … [Read more...]