Get ready: The Atlantic Classical Orchestra is coming. After four well-attended rehearsals in the Eissey Campus Theatre at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, they will give four Tuesday afternoon concerts there next season. Well known for its creative programming, after 24 years of playing in Vero Beach, Fort Pierce and Stuart, the ACO feels its brand of … [Read more...]
Invention on display at Fine Craft Show astounds
By Myles Ludwig Imagination is abloom at the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show at the Convention Center. It is a springy bouquet of masterfully individualized techniques and unexpectedly fused materials – textiles, woods, wire, mesh, beads, stone, ceramics, and glass and more — that have come together in a magical display of exciting, surprising forms that erase the imaginary line … [Read more...]
Fine singers tell of female progress in ‘Respect’
By Dale King Aretha Franklin sang the definitive song about respect, but it was Vanderbilt University professor Dorothy Marcic who wrote the definitive book on the subject. Her tome, Respect: Women and Popular Music, traces the upward progress of women through the 20th and early 21st centuries as reflected in the music popular during different eras. The book morphed into the … [Read more...]
Community theater: Fine actors make poignant case for ‘Daisy’
By Dale King Driving Miss Daisy is not a holiday play. Not even close. But this light comedy about a black chauffeur hired to transport an elderly Jewish widow who is no longer capable of operating her car safely is a beautiful show – written with the smoothness of a heartwarming holiday production. It doesn’t jump headlong into matters of race or religion, of whether public … [Read more...]
Fine cellist, homegrown music distinguish Estonian Symphony concert
Estonia was one of the three Baltic states suppressed by Soviet Russia in 1940. Thursday night at the Kravis Center, this tiny state of 1.5 million people sent a credible symphony orchestra of 76 players to perform music by Tormis, Dvořák and Brahms in the Regional Arts Concert Series. Independent since 1991, Estonia is closer to Finland geographically than Latvia and … [Read more...]
Fine comedians, strong singers fire PBO’s ‘Cenerentola’
Sometimes there’s nothing quite as satisfying on stage as seeing a few good clowns do their best to make a Saturday night fly by. The Palm Beach Opera’s current production of Giaochino Rossini’s La Cenerentola has, in addition to a hugely impressive performance by the celebrated mezzo Vivica Genaux as the title character, some very fine comedy in its two and half hours. It’s … [Read more...]
Fine Brahms ends chamber festival in affirmative fashion
One of the joys of the annual Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival is its array of fresh programming, bringing little-known music out of the libraries and into the harsh light of the stage, there to make its way or not, as the case may be. And this 21st season of the festival has been no exception, with rarely heard works dominant, and the familiar making itself known only very … [Read more...]
Fine art fair draws a different crowd to Convention Center
It’s remarkable. In a few short weeks, International Fine Art Expositions (IFAE) has transformed the Palm Beach County Convention Center from an über-cool, contemporary art warehouse that housed their Art Palm Beach fair into a refined country-manor home for the current American International Fine Art Fair (AIFAF). At the entrance, a four-spout fountain sits, surrounded by … [Read more...]
Reviews in brief: Fine new music for cello; PB Symphony charms; Delray Quartet advances
Carter Brey and Christopher O’Riley (Dec. 19, Kravis Center) World premieres are always special, but they don’t always suggest that they will make a lasting impact on the culture. But composer Justin Dello Joio’s Due per Due, which was given its debut by cellist Carter Brey and pianist Christopher O’Riley, is a worthy new work that deserves to be added to the programs of … [Read more...]
Fine performances mark nuanced, subtle ‘Collected Stories’
Most productions of Donald Margulies’ wily, articulate drama Collected Stories portray the relationship between renowned short story writer Ruth Steiner and her persistent protégé Lisa Morrison as the literary equivalent of All About Eve. For despite her seeming innocence and adoration of the older writer, the ambitious Lisa ultimately betrays her trust, making public a very … [Read more...]