Jeffrey Hartman and Amber Wagner in Ariadne auf Naxos. Palm Beach Opera’s last opera this season, Ariadne auf Naxos, was a singing triumph. The company brought together some of the freshest and best voices — all 16 of them — that ply their trade in the opera world today. I heard the second-cast stars on Saturday evening, sitting among a very new but appreciative audience. … [Read more...]
PBO’s ‘Ariadne’; ‘A’ cast: Top-to-bottom vocal strength lifts Strauss confection
Wendy Bryn Harmer and Brian Jagde in Ariadne auf Naxos. The audience response Sunday afternoon to Palm Beach Opera’s final presentation of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos wasn’t the kind of enthusiastic ovation a more familiar opera from the Italian repertory would have won. But if they weren’t crazy about the opera itself, the troupe deserved all the warm approbation … [Read more...]
PBO’s ‘La Bohème,’ Cast 2: Subtle approach makes ‘Bohème’ memorable
I heard the second cast of Palm Beach Opera’s very fine production of Puccini’s La Bohème on Saturday. The Kravis Center was packed to capacity for this, the first opera of the season. It was good to hear from the government last week that the arts in America now account for 4.3% of our gross domestic product. Palm Beach County’s lively arts programming surely contributes … [Read more...]
PBO’s ‘La Bohème,’ Cast 1: A ‘Bohème’ to cherish
Because of its uninterrupted 119-year streak of popularity, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème can come dangerously close to paint-by-numbers opera: Fill in the blanks with some colorful voices, and the work performs itself. Happily for local audiences, the creative staff of Palm Beach Opera’s just-passed revival of the opera were interested in approaching it with fresh eyes, and the … [Read more...]
PBO Young Artists deftly take on Rorem’s ‘Our Town’
First, let wide acclaim go forth to this crop of Palm Beach Opera’s Young Artists, who took Ned Rorem’s difficult music for Our Town and made it palatable. Each and every one of them sang splendidly in librettist J.D. McClatchy’s adaptation of one of America’s most popular plays by Thornton Wilder. Brilliant direction by Fenlon Lamb gave real meaning to this excerpted and … [Read more...]
PBO’s ‘Macbeth,’ first cast: Chioldi, Boross impressive; Panikkar a discovery
Even though the Giuseppe Verdi of Macbeth is not the Verdi of Don Carlo or Otello, one hears the earlier score today with a shock of understanding why this composer’s work seized the ears of his contemporaries: It is bold, fierce and unrelentingly exciting. It helps if the performance in question of the opera does it justice, of course, and fortunately, Palm Beach Opera’s … [Read more...]
PBO’s ‘Macbeth,’ second cast: Check’s Lady is a powerhouse
Palm Beach Opera’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth, based on Shakespeare’s drama of the same name, won thunderous applause Saturday night. Hardly uplifting, with so many murders and blood everywhere, it is the music that carries it along and raises it to exultant levels of high art. Shakespeare’s view of Macbeth has little historical basis in fact. Verdi was 33 when he wrote … [Read more...]
PBO’s ‘Traviata’ has impressive Violetta, Germont
Today’s opera singers are expected to be persuasive actors, and that can be a challenge given the very short dramatic trajectories their characters must ride in the pages of most libretti. In the case of Violetta Valéry, the doomed heroine of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, sopranos have enough splendid music that if their acting is less than persuasive, they can still make a … [Read more...]
‘Florencia’ really should be on PBO mainstage
The Palm Beach Opera’s Young Artists troupe wrapped its One Opera in One Hour season Friday night with an abridged version of Mexican composer Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas. And it showed that this is an opera that really should be on the mainstage here. That’s not because Catán’s score is a great one: Even cut to an hour, it never goes anywhere. It just sits and … [Read more...]
PBO’s ‘Carmen’ alive to characters’ humanity, theatrical savvy
It’s tough to bring something new to a work as well-known as Carmen, but the current Palm Beach Opera production of Georges Bizet’s classic, if not groundbreaking, fills out the opera’s promise with just plain good theater. On Friday night, a stellar lead and a strong supporting cast, plus smart, interesting directing choices made this production, the last in the company’s … [Read more...]