Since 1990, Florida Grand Opera has revived Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville about every five years, and for this 75th anniversary season, the company has brought the opera back again on the eve of the work’s bicentenary. This most popular of Rossini’s operas (to the unfortunate general neglect of his more important dramatic operas, such as Otello) remains a marvelous … [Read more...]
Hampson in strong voice and smart selection at Four Arts
Great opera stars have extended their careers for many years with lieder recitals, and they have a vast repertory of art song to choose from. America’s baritone, Thomas Hampson, came to the Four Arts on Feb. 11 with a lieder recital. The debonair singer is surely one of our finest ambassadors. Still active operatically in 2015, Hampson will be singing on stage in New York, … [Read more...]
Strong Britten should be the start of something important for PBO
It is not too much to say that Palm Beach Opera inaugurated a new and exciting era for itself this week with its two presentations of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. And as it happens, it was quite a good production, with strong singing, smart staging and good orchestral playing of a very challenging score, and the company can justly be proud of it. But the most … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Smart ‘Lungs,’ engaging ‘4000 Miles’
Duncan Macmillan’s 90-minute conversation, Lungs, is both up-to-the-minute and timeless. While it is certainly a new play, it has already had more productions than most scripts that The Theatre at Arts Garage’s Lou Tyrrell is used to dealing with. But Macmillan’s way with dialogue is so crisp, glib and theatrical, it is easy to see why the Delray Beach artistic director would … [Read more...]
Smart, subversive ‘Cabin’ a horror film for our time
As a parody of horror cinema, The Cabin in the Woods is so ingenious, it’s hard to believe nobody thought of it before now. There have been attempts to reach a similar end, of course: Scream, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Baghead and Behind the Mask all integrated humor and self-consciousness into their narrative toolbox to some extent. But The Cabin in the Woods should be … [Read more...]
Handsome ‘Romeo’ largely successful at PB Opera
Palm Beach Opera was working out some kinks Friday night as it tried on the theatrical clothes of a new production, but in the end, it achieved a satisfying and reasonably compelling telling of a classic love story. Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, a tuneful, sentimental example of French Romantic opera at its most endearing, is the third production in the West Palm … [Read more...]
Callaway sisters’ smart double act brightens Royal Room
Husky-voiced singer-songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway has appeared eight times at the Colony Hotel’s Royal Room before her current engagement this week. While she has been much acclaimed, something was missing previously: Her younger sister Liz. That has now been rectified with an 80-minute set, continuing through Saturday, that samples all three of the cabaret shows the sisters … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Romance and its aftermath, on three stages
A former musician turned playwright, Michael Hollinger is clearly fascinated with the music of words. Such an interest was evident in his earlier play, Opus, about the search for harmony among the members of a string quartet. A similar verbal playfulness is present in his latest work, Ghost-Writer, a look at the creative process of a fastidious novelist, who dictates his prose … [Read more...]
Smart ‘Farragut North’ gets crisp production at GableStage
Anyone who has heard artistic director Joe Adler’s impassioned, rambling introductory remarks at GableStage knows he cannot repress his views on politics. So he understandably could not resist bringing Beau Willimon’s backroom, back-stabbing campaign morality play, Farragut North, to his audience. First seen off-Broadway in late 2008, just after the presidential election, the … [Read more...]