Florida Grand Opera closed its 78th season on May 11 with a beautifully sung, attractively presented mounting of Jules Massenet’s Werther, which many scholars of French opera consider to be the composer’s masterpiece. The opera, based on Goethe’s breakthrough novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, tells the story of a young poet who falls desperately in love with a woman he … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Frida’ a brilliant, energetic read on iconic Mexican artist
By Robert Croan Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s 1991 opera, Frida – based on the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo – requires only 15 singers (some in double roles) and an orchestra of six to 11 players, but the brilliant, kinetic Florida Grand Opera production that opened last weekend in the Miramar Cultural Center, seemed huge. The energy level soared from first note to … [Read more...]
Opera on life of artist Kahlo ‘bright and beautiful,’ soprano Jones says
By Robert Croan The turbulent life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-54) reads like a secular passion play about a troubled human being who suffered poverty, childhood polio and a horrific tram accident that left her in lifelong pain. In her paintings, Kahlo depicted herself as an anguished Madonna. No less important in her life, however, were her political views (a … [Read more...]
FGO’s fresh, youthful ‘Figaro’ an object lesson in fun
By Robert Croan Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, seen in Broward Center’s Au-Rene Theater on Friday night, was a tribute to Florida Grand Opera’s excellent Young Artists Studio. Recent alumni took on three of the four leading roles, with all supporting characters assigned to current members of the program. Conducted with vigor by Andrew Bisantz and buoyantly staged by … [Read more...]
Mozart’s ‘Figaro’ speaks to a time of #MeToo
By Robert Croan Operagoers may think of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro as a quaint and old- fashioned, lighthearted comedy. That’s wrong, as audiences will learn when they attend Florida Grand Opera’s revival of the work, which opened at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center on Saturday. When Mozart composed his opera in 1786, the play that was its basis was considered so … [Read more...]
Soprano Jones stands out in Wolf songs at FGO Liederabend
By Robert Croan Lied is the German word for song (plural: Lieder). A Liederabend is an evening of German songs, usually the songs of the great 19th and early 20th-century composers – among them Beethoven, Schubert, Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf. Their songs were the popular music of their time, at first rooted in folksong but eventually expanding in scope to encompass … [Read more...]
Soprano Caballero subs beautifully as Mimi in FGO’s fine ‘Bohème’
By Robert Croan When the rock musical Rent opened on Broadway in 1996, the point of reference for many viewers was Giacomo Puccini’s opera – premiered a century earlier – La Bohème. Jonathan Larson’s musical was an updated version of the opera’s libretto, though with entirely new music. Fast forward two decades: at the Nov. 15 performance of Puccini’s La Bohème in the … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2018-19: Opera
The folks at OperaBase tell us there are more than 25,000 live opera performances across the globe each year, which says something about the durability and resilience of this art form that first saw daylight in 16th-century Florence. Closer to home, the three major opera companies in this region – the Palm Beach and Florida Grand opera companies on the I-95 corridor, and the … [Read more...]
Arts briefs: Alswang to retire from Norton; Danis departs at FGO
WEST PALM BEACH — Hope Alswang, who has led the Norton Museum of Art since April 2010, will retire in March after it reopens following its massive expansion and renovation by the eminent British architect Norman Foster. Alswang, who led a $100 million capital campaign called The New Norton, has overseen an expansion of the institution’s collections, receiving donations of … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Florencia’ takes pleasant journey down faux-Puccini river
Continuing with her effort to modernize and update her company, Florida Grand Opera general director Susan Danis closes the troupe’s 77th season with Florencia en el Amazonas, the 1996 magic-realist opera by the late Mexican composer Daniel Catán. Although set in the grandeur of the Amazon River as a boat wends its way to the city of Manaus in northwestern Brazil, Florencia … [Read more...]