By Robert Croan For the third and final production of her first season as Florida Grand Opera’s general director and CEO, Maria Todaro took on the multiple tasks of stage director and even costume designer to produce her personal take on Bizet’s perennial favorite, Carmen [seen April 26 at the Broward Center]. A retired mezzo-soprano who was once a successful Carmen … [Read more...]
Violinist’s excellence obscured by poky tempi at Palm Beach Symphony
The arrival on the musical scene of a fresh young soloist talent is always worth noting, and in the case of the South Korean violinist SooBeen Lee, she’s been getting a lot of major attention. Lee, who turned 18 in September, is currently studying with the great pedagogue Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, the Boston school where she won the concerto competition … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony launches season with rich menu of “pops”
By Dennis D. Rooney The term “Pops Concert” suggests to some a program in some way inferior to the program of a symphony orchestra, which unfortunately sometimes has been true when an orchestra is asked to play arrangements of music not originally for orchestra. But the term also particularly applies to orchestral music of a lighter character that is not often programmed … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Florencia’ takes pleasant journey down faux-Puccini river
Continuing with her effort to modernize and update her company, Florida Grand Opera general director Susan Danis closes the troupe’s 77th season with Florencia en el Amazonas, the 1996 magic-realist opera by the late Mexican composer Daniel Catán. Although set in the grandeur of the Amazon River as a boat wends its way to the city of Manaus in northwestern Brazil, Florencia … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony struggles in season finale
By Dennis D. Rooney The Palm Beach Symphony closed its 44th season April 17 at the Kravis Center with a most ambitious program. Too ambitious, as it happened. American cellist Zuill Bailey was the soloist in Edward Elgar’s 1919 Cello Concerto (in E minor, Op. 85), taking the place of the previously announced Romanian cellist, Răzvan Suma. Playing the “ex-Schneider” … [Read more...]
Fine singing makes for strong ‘Ballo’ at FGO
A production of a favorite opera can seem even better than ever if it allows you to appreciate the genius of its composer. And Florida Grand Opera’s current production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) does just that, with some exceptional singing that underlines the composer’s dramatic power and shows why this opera is one of his mid-career … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Symphony’s Russian finale shows Tebar’s mastery
Ramón Tebar conducts his orchestra like a man fine-tuning a grand piano. Responding to his every command, even the slightest hand gesture, the refined playing of the Palm Beach Symphony in its last concert of the season Thursday night at the Kravis Center was superb. Tebar is proving to be more than a fine orchestra builder. His conducting and orchestral control is … [Read more...]
PB Symphony sparkles in Borodin, Brahms-Schoenberg
Under the leadership of Ramón Tebar, there is no doubt that the Palm Beach Symphony has become the worthy successor to the late lamented Florida Philharmonic. But the public is woefully ignorant of this sparkling gem in its midst due to the private nature of its past. Happily, there are forces at work to help it become the orchestra for all of Palm Beach County. High … [Read more...]
PB Symphony’s ‘Egmont’ a revelation
A full house in the Four Arts auditorium on Monday night heard a very interesting program from the Palm Beach Symphony that had simply been promoted as “Egmont”: An uninspiring name associated with Beethoven’s masterful overture of the same name. The concert, however, proved to be most inspiring. This Egmont was more than an introductory overture to warm up the orchestra; … [Read more...]
FGO’s ‘Pasquale’ zany fun, but concept crowds out story
The finale of Don Pasquale, at Florida Grand Opera. (Photo by Lorne Grandison) Two of this area’s opera companies bookended the season with Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, with the Palm Beach Opera doing a 17th-century take on the early 19th-century setting in which this 1842 opera was initially set. The production of Don Pasquale now showing at Florida Grand Opera in … [Read more...]