From left, Joshua Matheney, Mark Hetelson and Brianna Frank in Black Coffee, at the Delray Beach Playhouse. By Dale King Delray Beach Playhouse brings its 2015-16 season to an end with the first production that murder mystery maven Agatha Christie wrote for the stage. And it’s an excellent fit for both. The Playhouse engages 13 fine actors to perform Christie’s deadly drama, … [Read more...]
Delray SQ, soprano Aleida revive Danielpour quartet in fine fashion
By Robert Croan The Delray String Quartet featured three works, each containing some sort of spiritual connection, in its Jan. 15 concert at Fort Lauderdale’s All Saints Episcopal Church. The sacred elements, however — variously Catholic, Jewish and Russian Orthodox — were secondary to the music itself, window dressing perhaps, to conform to the evening’s venue. Central to … [Read more...]
Delray String Quartet, with new member, starts 12th season engagingly
The Delray String Quartet opened its 12th season this past weekend with a new member in the second violinist seat and a season of concerts full of unusual repertoire. The Uzbek violinist Valentin Mansurov, a familiar face to concertgoers in the area for several years now, has taken the chair occupied for years by Tomás Cotik, who in turn has joined Miami’s Amernet String … [Read more...]
PBCMF No. 4: Exquisite Debussy is a festival high point
After the ailing Claude Debussy finished his Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp in 1915, he wrote to a friend that the music reminded him of an “antique” Debussy, writing as he had done 20 years before in the Nocturnes. Not antique, perhaps, so much as distilled to its purest essence, as a performance of this work showed last weekend in the final concerts of the Palm Beach … [Read more...]
The bling’s the thing in sparkly exhibit at Delray Center’s Cornell Museum
By Lucy Lazarony The art of Bling: Art That Shines, does just that: It shines, sparkles, glitters and glows. And some pieces even light up. It’s art that gives you a lift. Pop artist Camomile Hixon proclaims “YES” in one painting and the word “DREAM” is repeated 17 times in another. There are wildly colorful works such as Ashley Longshore’s paintings of Kate Moss and Audrey … [Read more...]
Delray SQ, Aleida deliver impressive Danielpour at Mainly Mozart
For two centuries or more, the string quartet has been the favored medium for a composer’s most intimate, profound thoughts. In his series of quartets, the American composer Richard Danielpour has explored themes of the Holocaust (No. 3, Psalms of Sorrow) and farewell (No. 6, Addio), and for his Quartet No. 7, which received its world premiere May 31 in Coral Gables at the … [Read more...]
Exhibit at Delray Library gathers new responses to the Holocaust
By Lucy Lazarony A current exhibit of artwork at the Delray Beach Public Library is the product of an effort by a local group of Holocaust survivor relatives to bear witness to one of the defining tragedies of the 20th century. The GenZ Project, an endeavor by Boynton Beach-based NextGenerations.org, connects college students with survivors of the Holocaust to create pieces … [Read more...]
Delray arts center becomes comedy outpost
Catch a Rising Star, the iconic New York City comedy club that gave rise to such household names such as Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Rosie O’Donnell and Chris Rock, has opened in two venues at the Delray Beach Center for the Arts. With its Twitter hashtag #RTL (Ready to Laugh), the center’s vintage gymnasium hopes to reach out to younger audiences, those … [Read more...]
Hersch’s ‘My Coma Dreams’ vividly explores world between jazz life and death
An old, valid cliché says that art imitates life, but New York City-based jazz pianist Fred Hersch’s new DVD My Coma Dreams (Palmetto) artistically goes more than one step beyond that. The 90-minute video, filmed at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York City, includes a conductor leading an 11-piece musical ensemble with Hersch, an actor playing dual roles of … [Read more...]
Community theater: Delray Playhouse’s ‘Wait Until Dark’ provides good suspense
By Dale King Delray Beach Playhouse draws deeply from the well of suspense for its opening production of the 2014-2015 season, Frederick Knott’s thriller, Wait Until Dark. The play that saves the best spine tingles for last will conclude its three-weekend run Sunday. The drama kicks off the 68th season for the playhouse located on the shores of Lake Ida. Wait Until Dark … [Read more...]