The weather gods looked favorably upon Saturday’s festive gathering at the Meyer Amphitheatre on Flagler Drive. The sun shone behind clouds, and cool breezes from Lake Worth fanned across the gladed greenery. Even better, the Palm Beach Opera’s 2013-14 group of seven Young Artists made a positive impression, breathing new life into old arias. Distinguished tenor James … [Read more...]
2013-14 arts preview: The season in opera
The two 200th-birthday boys of 2013, Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi, have been staples of the world’s opera houses since middle of the 19th century, and nothing’s changed today. Each of the three area opera companies will feature work by Verdi in the 2013-14 season, and one of them will offer Wagner: Sarasota Opera is mounting The Flying Dutchman. Florida Grand Opera, under … [Read more...]
Broward Stage Door cast does well with disturbing ‘Twilight of the Golds’
By Dale King The morality drama The Twilight of the Golds asks a question that some might not want to answer: If parents knew their child would be born gay, would they allow the birth or choose abortion? Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs takes a bold step by opening the 2013-14 season for Theatre II with this taut and tense tragicomedy, which demands responses to … [Read more...]
Opera on the Road: An astonishing rarity at Bard Summerscape
Forget Kirov, forget Bolshoi: We may one day have our own Russian opera company in New York state. Bard Summerscape, now in its 10th year delivered a magnificent performance of Sergey Taneyev’s Oresteia, premiered in 1895, which I saw on Aug. 4. The Annandale-on-Hudson festival is fast becoming a rival to Wagner’s Bayreuth as the place to be. Production values are very … [Read more...]
PB Opera gives us a ‘Salome’ with a conscience
Richard Strauss’ Salome has earned its reputation for decadence not just because of its Oscar Wilde source, the time of its composition in the overripe-civilization years of the early 20th century, or its score, with its strange, unexpected sounds at every turn. It has also earned it because of the story itself, which ends in a parody of Wagnerian bliss, with a cruel but … [Read more...]
Weekend picks: Dec. 22-24
Theater: Finally, some good news. The Kravis Center and the stagehands’ union have come to an agreement which will allow the remainder of the three-week run of Jersey Boys to proceed, after four performances had been canceled. The long-running Tony-winning musical biography tells the surprisingly involving story of the rise to fame of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2012-13: A season of change for local opera
After years of retrenchment and cutbacks, the area’s opera companies are moving ahead in positive directions in the coming season. Although both South Florida companies haven’t added back the productions they once cut, there are signs of a return to artistic daring, and the Sarasota company is offering a world premiere of an American opera. And the popular high-definition … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Opera’s Aprea leaves company; Fleisher gives Lynn master class
WEST PALM BEACH – The artistic director of the Palm Beach Opera has left the company, officials said Tuesday. Bruno Aprea, who has led musical aspects of the company’s productions and orchestral concerts since 2005, rejected the contract he was offered for the new season, said the company’s general director, Daniel Biaggi. The company has been restructuring to a more … [Read more...]
FGO names Sarasota Opera’s Danis as its new CEO
MIAMI ― A new general director and chief executive officer will lead the Florida Grand Opera in the 2012-13 season. Susan T. Danis joins the Florida Grand Opera on Oct. 9. Danis is the fourth general director and CEO in the opera’s 72-year-history. Robert Heuer, the company’s CEO for 32 years, retired in May. A self-proclaimed “opera geek,” Danis spent almost 14 years … [Read more...]
Opera at Bard: ‘King’ plot preposterous, but Chabrier’s opera worth doing
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. -- “This is a royal mess,’’ sings one of the characters in Bard Summerscape’s performance of Emmanuel Chabrier’s comic opera Le Roi Malgré Lui (The King In Spite of Himself). This could well be a wry reflection on the quality of the singing or the production. It is not. Standards were very high. Rather, it goes to the root of why this opera is not … [Read more...]