This is the year to dive into the office Oscar pool, because what looked murky in December has since become clear with a distinct consensus from the preliminary awards. Now watch me be wrong, but here are my fearless predictions for Sunday’s Academy Awards: * Best Picture: Birdman — It’s a two-horse race between Birdman and Boyhood, with the former getting a late boost from … [Read more...]
Strong lead performances lift Ballet Palm Beach’s ‘Romeo’
It was an interesting experience to see Romeo and Juliet at Ballet Palm Beach in the middle of the Winter Olympics at Sochi; if ice dancing is a somewhat clunky country cousin of the ballet, it has the same general wish to express profound emotion through the arc of the body. In its performance Feb. 15 at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens, Colleen Smith’s … [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...]