Rebecca Trionfo and Alexander Sargent in Renaissance Way. (Photo by Alex Srb) The spring concerts of the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton always begin with an introduction of the graduating class of dancers, who come to the mic, tell the audience who they are and where they’re from, and reveal their future plans, which are always very impressive. It’s a charming tradition … [Read more...]
Brilliant, absorbing ‘The Passenger’ marks FGO milestone
A scene from The Passenger. (Photo by Brittany Mazzurco-Muscato) Florida Grand Opera’s current production of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger is more than just a show that opera devotees and fans of the arts in general should make sure to see in its brief run this week at the Ziff Ballet Opera House. The Passenger is a milestone for FGO’s 75th season in … [Read more...]
Carpenter brilliant in launching new Kravis organ
Cameron Carpenter launched the new Kravis Center organ Wednesday night with American-style pomp and circumstance. The pomp was in the program he chose and the circumstance was the gala atmosphere surrounding what went on with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra playing alongside this lovable master of the new Opus 11 digital console organ, donated by generous philanthropist … [Read more...]
Exquisite Beethoven at Flagler from New Orford SQ
To open the 17th season of the Flagler Museum Music Series on Jan. 13 came the New Orford String Quartet of Canada. Made up of two principals of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, violinist Jonathan Crow and cellist Brian Manker, and two lead chairs from the Montreal Symphony, violinist Andrew Wan and violist Eric Nowlin — soon to take the first chair of the Detroit Symphony … [Read more...]
Brilliant ‘About Elly’ keeps viewers guessing
When considering Asghar Farhadi’s psychological thriller About Elly, a word pretzel from that (in)famous 21st-century philosopher Donald Rumsfeld comes to mind: “There are known knowns, unknown knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns.” To follow along with this knotty and riveting study of humans in crisis is to rewire old paradigms when unknowns become known, to accept … [Read more...]
Brilliant Mozart, engaging Greenwood from Australian Chamber Orchestra
By Robert Croan Water, a new classical work by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, is the centerpiece of the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s current tour program, which reached Broward Center’s Au-Rene Theater on Wednesday for a rewarding, if sparsely attended, event. This versatile rock group guitarist has written classical music before this, as well as film scores and a … [Read more...]
Brilliant lead performance elevates sensitive, sincere ‘Theory’
OK, so there are a few cringe-worthy moments in The Theory of Everything, a muted and respectful biopic about an intellectually towering icon. The real Stephen Hawking, who is played in the film in a career-defining embodiment by Eddie Redmayne, would not stand for the sentimental score that attends the aftermath his on-screen diagnosis of ALS — the sweeping sadness that … [Read more...]
Anderson and Roe, dancers brilliant in Stravinsky at CMSPB
Pianists Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Roe brought a capacity crowd of 280 to their concert in the Grand Ballroom of Mar-a-Lago on March 20. The largest audience yet for this fledgling arts organization heard expert playing and superb dancing by students from the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The pianists met at the Julliard School in New York in … [Read more...]
Grosvenor brilliant at Four Arts
By Donald Waxman Benjamin Grosvenor, the much-heralded young British pianist, is only 21, but he began performing in public and winning awards at the age of 10 and hasn’t stopped since. His current concert itinerary shows him playing two or three solo or orchestral concerts a week worldwide for the entirety of the concert season. For his recital at the Society of the Four … [Read more...]
Brilliant FGO production lets ‘Mourning’ shine
Marvin David Levy’s opera Mourning Becomes Electra made a big impression when it was first launched at the Metropolitan Opera in 1967, helped by the star turns of its leading ladies, Evelyn Lear and Marie Collier, and a young baritone named Sherrill Milnes. It had to wait 30 years for its next performance, at Chicago’s Lyric Opera, and its current production at Florida Grand … [Read more...]