By Dale King Not all that ago, the Festival of the Arts Boca ended its weekly run with a gala performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, led by violinist Itzhak Perlman. This year, for the ninth version of the performing arts-and-literature gathering that commandeers the west end of Mizner Park, Beethoven’s Ninth will again bring the festival — at least the musical events — … [Read more...]
A beautiful visitation for Boca Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’
It’s too easy to compare the appearance of a major ballerina with a local company to the visitation of a swan, especially when the ballet in question is that of Tchaikovsky. And it also minimizes the contribution of the company itself, which in the case of Boca Ballet Theatre would be distinctly unfair. But this past Saturday night’s mounting of Swan Lake with New York City … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 2-6
Dance: One of the nice things about today’s technology is that so many arts groups are using film to present insider looks at the worlds they inhabit, often with major stars giving people a glimpse into their lives. So it is with Sara Mearns, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet who is renowned for her work as Odette/Odile in the great Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake. … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Steel Magnolias,’ ‘Chess,’ Dirty Blonde,’ and ‘Mr. Marmalade’
April may not be the cruelest month, as T.S. Eliot once declared, but it has brought us some disappointing theater. Steel Magnolias — Boca Raton’s Wick Theatre has filled its inaugural season with mainstream commercial musicals. So you would think its only divergence from that menu would have to be a pretty sure-fire, high-quality, audience-friendly play. Well, no. Sandwiched … [Read more...]
In the news: PB Opera plans world premiere in 2015; changes at Boca Museum, Norton Gardens
For the first time in its 53-year history, Palm Beach Opera next season will present a world premiere of an American opera. Enemies, A Love Story, with music by Ben Moore and a libretto by Nahma Sandrow, and based on the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, was seen in abridged workshop form in the company’s One Opera in One Hour series last season. Set in New York in 1948, it … [Read more...]
Boca Museum’s ‘Pop Culture’ gives us images of what we really are
Like a giant slap in the face, the new Pop Art exhibition at the Boca Museum of Art wakes us up from a long hibernation filled with compulsive consumerism habits, celebrity infatuation and overindulgence. The effect, however, is momentary. It may not be enough to change our ways, but faced with a giant hot dog made of mosaics, a thought does come to mind: How did we get to … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 10-13
Art: Few forms of art are as cheeky and yet communicative as Pop Art, and this weekend, the Boca Museum of Art opens a three-month exhibition of works by artists who not only have come to define the movement but are well-known by non-specialists as well: Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, among others. They made careers out of adopting the styles and sometimes the … [Read more...]
At the symphony I: Lovely Mozart at Boca Symphonia
Philippe Entremont closed out his tenure as director of the Boca Raton Symphonia on March 24 with a concert that included a flute concerto by Mozart and works by Respighi and Shchedrin. The French pianist and conductor will return for one concert next season, but conducting duties will be divided among three other maestros: Gerard Schwarz, Alexander Platt and James Judd. … [Read more...]
Broadway standout McDonald to headline 7th Boca arts fest
BOCA RATON – Broadway star Audra McDonald and an appearance by Miami Beach’s New World Symphony are among the concerts scheduled for the seventh incarnation of the Festival of the Arts Boca, officials said today. The festival, which marries the worlds of literature and music each year at venues in and around Mizner Park, is set for March 7-16. A partial schedule of writers was … [Read more...]
Boca Guild’s ‘Allergist’s Wife’ marks advance for company
Still trying to establish its status as a professional theater company, Boca Raton Stage Guild makes a major move in that direction with the selection of Charles Busch’s boulevard comedy, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, and the casting of two South Florida veteran actresses, Patti Gardner and Barbara Sloan, in the leading roles. In what was playwright Busch’s Broadway … [Read more...]