It was a good night at the ballet — a very good night. Playing to a packed house for one performance only, the Joffrey Ballet showed an easy command of the physically demanding and highly technical program it boldly presented March 12 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. The calling card of the evening was the line-up of dance makers — a virtual Who’s Who in the new … [Read more...]
Victor DeRenzi: At the end of the Verdi journey
Victor DeRenzi, artistic director of the Sarasota Opera. (Photo by Giovanni Lunardi) On Saturday night, the curtain at the Sarasota Opera House will open on a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aïda, marking the beginning of the 57th season at the house. And with a production later in the season of La Battaglia di Legnano, it will mark the culmination of a 28-year project … [Read more...]
Shyamalan’s ‘The Visit’ inspired, creepy and hilarious
Near the beginning of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit, on a train en route to a weeklong stay with grandparents they’ve never met, 15-year-old Becca (Olivia De Jonge) and her 13-year-old brother Tyler (Ed Oxenbould) discuss the worst possible scenarios. “What if they’re scrapbookers?” “What if they think boy bands are cute?” Shotguns, butcher knives, and inexplicable projectile … [Read more...]
Dramaworks’ Beautiful ‘Night Music’ perfect for your Florida summer night
From the 1970s — Stephen Sondheim’s most creative period, the decade of his major collaborations with director Harold Prince — comes A Little Night Music, their lush, irony-fueled tale of the follies of love. It kicks off Palm Beach Dramaworks’ latest summer of staged concerts, a hybrid format that trades in scenic challenges for evocative, stage-wide projections and focuses in … [Read more...]
Footnotes: A night with The Dancers’ Space
Editor’s note: This is the first of an occasional series of short notes on local dance by dance writer Tara Mitton Catao. By Tara Mitton Catao Saturday night, in support of the local dance scene, I went to the Duncan Theatre to see create.Dance.florida. Eight works were presented by 45 dance artists. Although there was a great variety in the caliber of the performers and the … [Read more...]
Smith’s night of ‘Grace’ wins over festival audience
By Dale King When actor Anna Deavere Smith is in character, she can actually be many different characters. She brought some of her best stage personages to a performance at the Cultural Arts Center in Boca Raton on Tuesday night as part of the Festival of the Arts Boca lecture and theater series. A playwright, professor and known face on the movie and TV screen, Smith employs … [Read more...]
A wonderful night of Vivaldi from Europa Galante at Four Arts
The craze for the “early music” of the 17th and 18th centuries began with Arnold Dolmetsch in 1925. He was a recorder maker who started the Haslemere Early Music Festival in England, laying the foundation for the widespread interest that caught the public imagination. In America, recorder player Bernard Krainis linked up with musicologist Noah Greenberg to form New York Pro … [Read more...]
A remarkable night with a young trio
Brilliance comes in threes, it appears. Tuesday night at Mar-a-Lago, in the second concert of the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, three young men — Doori Na, violin; Joseph Lee, cello; and Sean Kennard, piano — thrilled the many concert attendees with their music-making. And indeed, their musicianship was remarkable. Coming together as individuals of astonishing skill … [Read more...]
Sundays: The tyranny of opinion
By Myles Ludwig The another night at a casual and lively dinner party with friends and family, hot dogs and hamburgers, amid the conversations about the relative merits of TV shows, streaming or live, cable or satellite, cord or no cord, a friend turned to me and asked: What is your opinion of Bashar Assad? I was surprised to hear myself say: “I have no opinion.” It’s not … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks, March 15-17
Music: Tonight at the Festival of the Arts Boca, the much-loved Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa, who’s been an area favorite for years, joins the New World Symphony for the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Op. 45) of Rachmaninov, and doubtless she’ll do an encore, too. But the concert, which will be led by Toronto Symphony director Peter Oundjian, also contains a rarely … [Read more...]