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...]
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...]
WXEL radio now WPBI; Boca museum sets juried show
WXEL radio becomes WPBI with close of sale to APM FORT LAUDERDALE – Classical South Florida, the American Public Media radio subsidiary, said it has completed the purchase of WXEL-90.7 FM. The Boynton Beach-based radio station’s new call letters are WPBI. The Minneapolis-based company bought WXEL radio last year from Barry University in Miami Shores for about $4 million. The … [Read more...]
Boca fest audience was wild about Jackie
Perhaps some were thinking of their own daughters, pre-teen rebellion, and others of their granddaughters, out of touch in distant states. Doubtless most had happier ideas in mind, though one thing was clear: The appearance Saturday of Jackie Evancho on the final night of this year’s Festival of the Arts Boca turned an audience of concertgoers into proud, teary parents. The … [Read more...]
Montero entertains in vivid style at Boca fest
The Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero has carved out a useful niche for herself as a musician who recalls an earlier tradition of performers who improvised in concert. Her recital Thursday night during the fifth Festival of the Arts Boca ended with four of her improvisations, but it was the rest of her program that provided the highest interest from a purely musical point of … [Read more...]
Boca Symphonia enters Age of Philippe
The French pianist Philippe Entremont was born in 1934 in Rheims, France, to two musicians, and found fame early, entering the Paris Conservatoire at 12 and winning first prizes in solfège, chamber music and piano performance by the time he was 15. He made his American debut in 1953, and has enjoyed a career as one of the world’s leading pianists, with numerous recordings and … [Read more...]
Boca arts fest to return March 4-12
By Skip Sheffield The Festival of the Arts Boca is going lean and green for its fifth season March 4-12 at Mizner Park in Boca Raton. That’s “green” as in “young.” One of the headliners in the concert finale March 12, operatic soprano Jackie Evancho, is just 10 years old. “We tried to calm the pace a little this year,” Charles Siemon, chairman and co-founder of the … [Read more...]