For some reason, the string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn don’t have the currency on our chamber music stages that their quality deserves. But all six of them, as well as the separate pieces for string quartet, are marvelous works, and it was with one of these pieces that the 23rd iteration of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival wrapped up last weekend. It’s also worth … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 4-7
Theater: This is the final weekend for the 19th annual Summer Shorts Festival by City Theatre, at the company’s home in the Carnival Studio Theater of Miami’s Arsht Center. Whittled down to a more manageable 10 plays of 10-15 minutes duration each, that does not leave much room for error. Still, it wouldn’t be Summer Shorts if the production did not include a few … [Read more...]
Standout singing, graphics make for intriguing ‘Dandelion Woman’
A two-person chamber opera by a South Florida-based composer had an impact beyond its intimate scale thanks to two powerhouse performances and a beautifully accomplished suite of computer projections. Fairy Tales: Songs of the Dandelion Woman, which had its premiere in early May at the SoBe Institute for the Arts in Miami Beach (and which I saw May 17), is the brainchild of … [Read more...]
Remembering Corey Dwyer, gone before long strange trip was over
In early April, I received what I thought was a casual inquiry on Facebook that turned into a snowballing tragedy. Renee Solis, vocalist and guitarist for the progressive local band Equinox, asked if I knew how to get in touch with Corey Dwyer, the Boynton Beach-based musician who sang and played nearly every instrument, who was a longtime owner, operator and engineer at the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 2-4
Theater: Daniel Maté, whose song cycle The Longing and the Short of It kicked off the season at The Theatre at Arts Garage, now returns with a long gestating project, The Trouble with Doug, a contemporary, comic take on Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. In it, a 27-year-old computer wonk from Brooklyn suddenly transforms into a garden slug, much to the chagrin of his family and … [Read more...]
PB Symphony finale shows Tebar’s orchestra-building success
Ramón Tebar must be exhausted. Twinning conductorships of Palm Beach Symphony and Florida Grand Opera in Miami would sap the energy of another man. Not so the 35-year-old Tebar. He must have the strength of Hercules. Drawing on reserves of a champion soccer player last Sunday afternoon, April 6, he conducted a superb concert at the Kravis Center with the Palm Beach Symphony. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: April 11-13
Film: OK, it’s not a great weekend for film releases, but if you are still going through withdrawal after the football season, you can get a fictional look at the Cleveland Browns’ front office in Draft Day, opening wide this weekend. Kevin Costner gets his best role in years as the team’s general manager, Sonny Weaver Jr., wheeling and dealing in preparation for the crucial … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: ‘Dividing the Estate’ and ‘Evita’
Take economic bad times, add a land-rich but cash-poor clan brimming with selfish money-grubbers and you have a recipe for a dysfunctional family play like Dividing the Estate, which landed on Broadway for 50 performances in late 2008 and early 2009, just before its author, the prolific Horton Foote, passed away. He again takes us to fictional Harrison, Texas, the site of so … [Read more...]
For Palm Beach Film Festival, 19th time may be the charm
To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Reports of the death of the Palm Beach International Film Festival have been greatly exaggerated.” Dismissing the naysayers who will tell you that the 19-year-old celebration of movies from around the globe is on the verge of folding, longtime PBIFF president and chief executive officer Randi Emerman insists, “You have to be a believer. Because of … [Read more...]
Sundays: Looking for answers
By Myles Ludwig We seem to be sloshing through a media debris field. The globalization of media, the diversity of delivery platforms and their consequent overarching narratives of mystery, fear and grief involve us all within reach in news stories that seem so close, yet are so far. Those of us not directly affected by catastrophic events are nevertheless drawn into the … [Read more...]