By Dale King Lake Worth Playhouse goes all out for its first show of 2016, High Society, the tale of a Long Island socialite who waxes blasé on the night before her wedding when two suitors try to nudge her away from the groom-to-be. It’s an interesting mix of highbrow banter and scatterbrained hijinks that is well worth seeing. Jodie Dixon-Mears, the artist boss at the … [Read more...]
Creatures and robots enliven summer at Morikami
If I told you the first hotel run solely by robots just opened and it features a dinosaur concierge, where in the world would you picture it? It counts if you mention anywhere in Japan — though, technically, it opened in Nagasaki. The Land of the Rising Sun is also proving to be the most machine-loving, with an invigorating robot culture and a robotic technology that is … [Read more...]
Stravinsky hommage stands out at PBCMF’s first concert
A young American composer’s tribute to Igor Stravinsky made a remarkable impression during the opening concert last weekend of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s 24th summer season. San Francisco-based Stefan Cwik, not yet 30 years old, composed his Eight Miniatures for the Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition in 2010, and it was easy to hear Sunday afternoon at … [Read more...]
Letter from Louisville: ‘Gnit’ stands out at Humana new plays festival
LOUISVILLE, Ky. ― Since 1976 ― 37 years, said to be the longest continuous corporate underwriting of the arts ― the Humana Foundation has been funding an annual festival of new American plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville. That means hundreds of world premieres, many of which have subsequent lives in New York ― The Gin Game, Agnes of God, Dinner with Friends, etc. ― or at … [Read more...]
Personable ‘Contrasts’ stands out in festival’s 3rd week
When Béla Bartók went into the Austro-Hungarian countryside starting in 1906, the folksongs he brought back underlay his compositions in different ways: Some were harmonizations, tart and otherwise, of Christmas carols and the like, while in other works he drew stronger stuff from the melodies he distilled. In a work such as Contrasts, written in 1938 for Benny Goodman, Joszef … [Read more...]
Beethoven’s ‘Harp’ stands out in second chamber fest concert
The 10th string quartet of Beethoven, depending on which scholarly camp you favor, is either a genial mid-career throwback to the peak of the Haydn classical style or the earliest example of the innovatory, astonishing manner of the late-period quartets. Either way, it’s a remarkable piece of music from a remarkable year (1809), and it was the high point Friday night of the … [Read more...]