There is a whimsical banner on Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s website that almost looks like it could be for a vaudeville show. It says: “The World’s Foremost All-Male Comic Ballet Company. Though initially it might be hard to envision classical ballets performed en travesti, it certainly was easy to sit back, relax and go just along – laughing all the way – with … [Read more...]
Attacca Quartet shows its worth in Ligeti, Beethoven at Duncan
By Dennis D. Rooney It took only a few measures of Beethoven’s Quartet No. 6 (in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6) to explain the high rank among contemporary American string quartets of the Attacca Quartet, founded in 2003 and actively concertizing for a decade. In the opening work of their Duncan Stage West program Feb. 21, they excelled in its strongly rhythmic character … [Read more...]
BalletBoyz proves sensational at Duncan
If you missed seeing BalletBoyz this past weekend at the Duncan Theatre, you missed a terrific show. First off, they weren’t really boys, or even Boyz for that matter. Composed of 10 handsome men whose lean and chiseled bodies moved in a way that was completely intoxicating, this outstanding British dance company gave a stunning performance that enthralled the Duncan’s sage … [Read more...]
Dorrance Dance taps into endless energy, innovation
The performing arts are currently undergoing one of their occasional convulsions, as established ways of presenting art, dance, music and theater are remade along with their subjects of inquiry. From a critic’s standpoint, it’s been welcome to see, as fresh thinking and new ideas spice up the cultural menu to delicious effect. In the case of Dorrance Dance, a New York-based … [Read more...]
Telegraph Quartet brilliantly opens Duncan classical series
By Dennis D. Rooney Founded in 2013, the Telegraph Quartet hails from the West Coast, specifically San Francisco, where they been appointed artists-in-residence at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They have often appeared nationally and internationally, and performed last year in the Flagler Museum music series. Their prizes include the Fischoff Competition. In 2016, … [Read more...]
Arts Preview 2017-18: The season in dance
Devotees of dance this season can sample Miami City Ballet’s continued artistic honing by Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez, the ongoing successful dance programming at the Duncan Theatre or the breakthrough PEAK presentations at the Kravis Center, as well as decide to experience the continuity and strength in the local dance scene. Amid this strong lineup, this season it … [Read more...]
Bluegrass wizards The HillBenders give Duncan crowd an exciting ‘Tommy’
Pete Townshend has proven a musical visionary since he penned The Who’s first of two rock opera releases, Tommy, in 1969 (the other being Quadrophenia, in 1973), but could the guitarist/vocalist have foreseen Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry, the 2015 Compass Records release by Springfield, Mo.-based quintet The HillBenders? Perhaps. Both the group’s latest recording and its … [Read more...]
Cellist Shaw offers fresh programming to close Classical Café
By Dennis D. Rooney Cellist Jacob Shaw and pianist David Lau Magnussen brought to a close this season’s Classical Café concerts at the Duncan Theatre’s Stage West on March 29. The room was designed for easily understood speech. Its dry acoustics reinforce that quality. Music fares less well there. Although these players did not especially seek tonal elegance, their … [Read more...]
Group offers bluegrass version of Who’s ‘Tommy’ at the Duncan
By Dale King The rock opera Tommy, guitarist Pete Townshend’s high-powered musical about a “deaf, dumb and blind kid” who becomes a “pinball wizard” despite his sensory and other personal obstacles, stops by the Duncan Theatre on the Lake Worth campus of Palm Beach State College at 8 p.m. Wednesday. The show will be performed in its 75-minute entirety, but in a completely … [Read more...]
Momix’s ‘Opus Cactus’ stuns, but only intermittently
The Sonoran Desert in Arizona is a very impressive place. Imagine seeing it for the very first time if you grew up on a dairy farm in rural Vermont. How would you react? Moses Pendleton — who did — was so impressed that he created his own version of it to put on the stage. Although he is not really known as a choreographer, he created his first incarnation of Opus Cactus as … [Read more...]