In all my years of going to hear Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, I have never heard a better interpretation than that of Canadian soprano Michele Capalbo, who sang the lead role of Cio-Cio San on Saturday at Palm Beach Opera. Capalbo led the company’s “B” cast; the “A” cast opened Palm Beach Opera’s 50th season the night before. Taking on such demanding lead roles means opera … [Read more...]
PB Opera opens 50th season with beautiful ‘Butterfly’
In the world of Madama Butterfly, it’s all about her, with the occasional supporting character coming in now and again to move the plot along. But Palm Beach Opera’s current presentation of Giacomo Puccini’s Japanese opera is noteworthy for the strength of its supporting cast overall, and with a fine performance at its center plus a tasteful, intelligent staging, this … [Read more...]
Dramaworks gets $2 million donation; PB Opera cancels all Monday shows
WEST PALM BEACH -- A retired Washington, D.C., power couple has donated $2 million to Palm Beach Dramaworks, the largest contribution in the history of the theater company. The donation by Donald and Ann Brown of Palm Beach Gardens will bring with it the renaming of the former Cuillo Theatre in West Palm Beach as the Donald and Ann Brown Theatre, the company said this morning. … [Read more...]
Baritones win the day at PB Opera’s vocal finals
For the Grand Finals of the Palm Beach Opera’s annual vocal competition this year, technical accomplishment appeared to matter most to the panel of four judges. Baritone Joo Won Kang of Seoul, South Korea, won the top prize in the advanced division (for ages 24-30), and bass-baritone Brandon Cedel, of Hershey, Pa., won the top prize in the junior division (ages 18-23). Both … [Read more...]
Sarasota Opera season highlighted by brilliant ‘Crucible’
Sarasota Opera’s season in February and March each year has three weekends to suit the traveling operagoer. This year’s offerings were Don Giovanni, The Crucible, La Bohème and I Lombardi. I wasn’t able to attend La Bohème, but here are summaries of the rest of the Sarasota season: The Crucible A sprightly 93-year-old Robert Ward came to Sarasota to hear the … [Read more...]
PB Opera’s ‘Cosi’ well-sung, craftily staged
The Palm Beach Opera is closing its three-year survey of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas with a somewhat minimalist but well-staged and ably sung production of Così fan Tutte. Friday night found a cast of young, handsome singers working inside a Stephen Lawless reading of the opera that was easy to understand, almost plausible, and full of smart, interesting stage business that … [Read more...]
Supporting characters shine brighter in PB Opera’s ‘Nabucco’
It takes a lot of big singing to fill up all the space in the static tableaux of Verdi’s Nabucco. And on Friday night at the Palm Beach Opera, most of that sonic filling was provided by two singers other than the principals: a sonorous bass as Zaccaria and a thrilling tenor as Ismaele. For its first production in 25 years of Verdi’s breakthrough 1842 Biblical drama, Palm … [Read more...]
PB Opera competition chooses 13 finalists
Thirteen young singers in two divisions have been named finalists in the 41st annual Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition. The singers will perform Sunday afternoon in the Grand Finals concert at the Kravis Center. The competition began this week with 47 semi-finalists selected from an initial field of 259. The finalists will be vying for a total of $78,000 in donated prize … [Read more...]
PB Opera cast, conductor see continued vitality in ‘Carmen’
The young Frenchman Jean-Luc Tingaud is the associate conductor at the venerable Opéra-Comique in Paris, the same theater (though not the same building) where the opera Carmen premiered in March of 1875. Three months later, Carmen’s composer, Georges Bizet, died of runaway strep throat at the tragically young age of 36. Tingaud says the theater still has the original … [Read more...]
Sarasota Opera’s ‘Giovanna’ revealed Verdi gem
The Sarasota Opera likes to say that no other company in the world will have completed a Verdi cycle – a complete survey of all the composer’s stage works -- when it comes to an end in 2013 on the 200th anniversary of Verdi’s birth. The company’s just-ended production of Giovanna d’Arco (Joan of Arc) was the 29th opera in the cycle, and its boast of exclusivity is a strong … [Read more...]