The weather gods looked favorably upon Saturday’s festive gathering at the Meyer Amphitheatre on Flagler Drive. The sun shone behind clouds, and cool breezes from Lake Worth fanned across the gladed greenery. Even better, the Palm Beach Opera’s 2013-14 group of seven Young Artists made a positive impression, breathing new life into old arias. Distinguished tenor James … [Read more...]
Evocative new movements make successful fresh take on Mozart Requiem
It took a serious amount of artistic nerve for Seraphic Fire to commission a new completion for the Mozart Requiem, some 18 minutes of freshly composed music the choir unveiled last week at three different concerts. Instead of going with another academic examination of the music Franz Süssmayr composed, or perhaps drew from some now-missing Mozart sketches, for the Sanctus, … [Read more...]
‘Great Beauty’ looks it, but has little heart
The first 15 minutes or so of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is one of year’s most daring expressions of cinema’s intoxicating possibilities. The opening shot starts inside a cannon, with the camera tracking out of it and up and away, like a cannonball, and we get through an entire reel before it settles down. Restless but elegant, it drifts in and around Rome’s ancient … [Read more...]
Gritty but empty, ‘Sunlight Jr.’ revels in urban misery
The best thing Sunlight Jr. has going for it is its setting. Laurie Collyer’s sophomore film was shot in Clearwater, one of the sprawling eyesores of metro Tampa, but it looks a lot of like certain stretches of Lake Worth, or Oakland Park, or North Miami, or hundreds of other depressed stretches of dollar stores, fast-food joints and scalding macadam, where the city meets the … [Read more...]
Anything but deep, ‘Counselor’ is a fun, trashy ride
The Counselor is really, really, really good trash. It’s trash elevated to a fine art, which has been the goal of B-movie muck-divers since the Poverty Row noirs of the ’40s. Prudes and humorless folk may linger on the trashiness and question the movie’s artistic purpose, and if that’s the case, the film provides plenty of ripe opportunities to walk out. The rest of us will … [Read more...]
ABT evening beautiful but skimpy
By Tara Mitton Catao On Saturday night at the Kravis, American Ballet Theatre, one of the most outstanding ballet companies in the world, made a long overdue visit to South Florida in a program that featured a mixed repertory including Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, Mark Morris’ Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes and the White Swan pas de deux from Act II of Swan Lake. It was a … [Read more...]
Hula show at Duncan: Good for you, but needs rethinking
First, get rid of any preconceived notions that you might have of Hawaiian dance and the hula. You won’t see any of that in this performance by Halau Hula Ka No’eau. You will see a more historic and anthropological hula, one that was highly influenced by the missionaries and American and European culture. The women are covered from neck to ankle in granny-like Victorian … [Read more...]
At 70, jazz icon Dr. Lonnie Smith gets a fresh start
Read it here first: 70-year-old Hammond organ icon Dr. Lonnie Smith has just released his first-ever CD in 2012, the burning live trio set The Healer. Sure, the turban-topped keyboardist started recording under his own name with the 1967 gem Finger-Lickin’ Good while he simultaneously cut tracks with guitarist George Benson (for his banner releases It’s Uptown and The George … [Read more...]
‘Sister Act’: An agreeable dose of nunsense
It is a show business axiom that nuns are inherently funny. And nuns learning to get in touch with their show biz side are even funnier. Those seeking evidence of that notion need look no further than the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie, Sister Act, or ― since it is currently on view at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale ― the stage musical of the same name based on the … [Read more...]
Dance troupes join forces for Eissey show
When Ballet Florida shut its doors in 2009, it left a hole in the local dance world. But it didn’t disrupt the network of dancers, choreographers and enthusiasts who wanted to see the art of Terpsichore continue under the palms. Jerry Opdenaker, a 47-year-old performer and choreographer who danced with for 22 years with Pennsylvania Ballet, the Kansas City Ballet and Ballet … [Read more...]