It’s hard to know whether a change as simple as a rehearsal strategy can make all the difference in the world for a performing organization, but in the case of the Lynn Philharmonia, this much can be said: Its opening program this past weekend was easily the finest opening concert of the season the conservatory orchestra has ever given, and in its freshness, maturity and … [Read more...]
PB Opera wraps season with well-sung, entertaining ‘Hoffmann’
Opera’s long history means that today’s audiences are treated to entertainment conventions from several different eras, and when it gets into pre-Industrial Revolution territory, viewers generally have to make something of a leap to get to full enjoyment. But Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) was composed by Jacques Offenbach for a late 19th-century urban … [Read more...]
Norton’s ‘Industrial Sublime’ a poem of water, iron, stone and sky
If New Yorkers won’t come to New York, the city will come to them, in the form oil paintings, watercolors and oil pastels with impressionist, cubist and realist tones. A rich selection of works depicting the pros and cons of the booming city makes up Industrial Sublime, which opened March 20 at the Norton Museum. The gallery rooms are filled with cityscapes by famous and … [Read more...]
Flagler silver exhibit takes us back to Age of Acquisition
Nobody uses a 137-year-old silver set of 1,250 pieces from Tiffany & Co. to eat lunch anymore or gets a glossy water pitcher as retirement gift. A pen and porcelain plates will do. Sometimes it takes such a decline in popularity to make an art exhibition happen. If it wasn’t for silver’s falling demand, the current show at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum may not have … [Read more...]
PB Opera turns to the timeless magic of Rossini’s ‘Barber’
Scratch the surface of a typical Rossini scholar you happen to meet and he or she will tell you that the Italian composer’s greatest contribution to the art of opera was in his serious works. It was there, the scholar will say, in works such as Elisabetta, Semiramide, Tancredi, Otello and Guillaume Tell, that Gioachino Rossini blazed a path that would be followed to great … [Read more...]
Jewish Film Festival gets fresh direction, looks for growth
Ellen Wedner, a veteran of the arts scene in Miami for two decades, has moved two counties north to direct the Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival. Running eleven days from Jan. 16 to 26, the 24-year-old festival will screen 37 films in western Delray Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. Hap Erstein spoke with Wedner about her festival philosophy and the changes she is … [Read more...]
Harid marks 25 years with three celebratory programs
Reared in the orphanages of rural southwest Brazil, Gleidson Vasconcelos found his future one day as he looked into a window he was passing, and saw a girl dancing to the sound of a music box. “’She must be having a really great time doing what she is doing. She is so beautiful and free,’” Vasconcelos remembers thinking. Seen at the window by a dance teacher, the 10-year-old … [Read more...]
PB Opera gives us a ‘Salome’ with a conscience
Richard Strauss’ Salome has earned its reputation for decadence not just because of its Oscar Wilde source, the time of its composition in the overripe-civilization years of the early 20th century, or its score, with its strange, unexpected sounds at every turn. It has also earned it because of the story itself, which ends in a parody of Wagnerian bliss, with a cruel but … [Read more...]
PB Pops paying tribute to the king of all film composers
Few American composers of any description have enjoyed the fame of John Williams, and even fewer have had their music become so familiar to a worldwide audience. It’s likely that almost anyone you run into could sing the opening theme of Star Wars (1977), for example, or imitate the deep, chopping bass figure that accompanies the great white shark of Jaws (1975). His music is … [Read more...]
Pahokee Heritage Music Festival offers much-expanded lineup for 2nd-ever event
This weekend's Pahokee Heritage Music Festival will feature a diverse lineup of performers that ranges from jazz, R&B, rock and blues to soca, Latin, country and pop. There’s also a gospel music competition, an array of seafood, barbecue and Caribbean food vendors, plus some of the area's prominent visual artists and authors -- all along the Lake Okeechobee waterfront at the … [Read more...]