Florida Grand Opera’s third production of the season, Verdi’s Rigoletto, closes tonight at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, and if you can catch it before it leaves, you’ll catch a really fine operatic evening, and see a young soprano on her way up. FGO produced this 1851 Verdi classic only six years ago, and the current mounting is the ninth in the company’s … [Read more...]
‘Boynton Beach Club’ in concert, not ready for Broadway
Geared as it is to the senior set, Boynton Beach Club probably makes more commercial sense as a theatrical musical than a feature film. But based on the developmental reading at Boynton’s Park Vista Theatre this weekend, the authors seem stumped for much dramatic justification for the 2006 movie’s transition to the stage. With a so-so score by Ned Paul Ginsburg and Michael … [Read more...]
Song of destiny? Seraphic Fire awaits Grammy results
By the time the last notes of J.S. Bach’s great B minor Mass have sounded at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton on Sunday afternoon, the audience will know whether it has been listening to a Grammy-winning ensemble. Seraphic Fire, a concert choir founded 10 years ago in South Miami, is one of the few local classical ensembles to have been honored with Grammy nods. … [Read more...]
Despite new blindness, jazz guitarist Golub remains thankful
When New York City-based guitarist Jeff Golub takes the stage Saturday to close out the International Polo Club's two-day Saddle Up for JazzFest Wellington event, much about the experience will be familiar to him. As he has for more than 35 years, the 56-year-old guitarist will hear the ebbs and flows within the music, feel the power surge from his electric instrument through … [Read more...]
The View From Home 35: New releases and notable screenings, Feb. 7-29
There are many, many people who would disagree with me (I’m marrying one of them), but I can think of no better way to spend 195 minutes than watching a documentary on Woody Allen. I’m what you might call a Woody Allen fanboy – an apologist, even. I will go on record appreciating his bombs as well as his critical successes (well, most of them, anyway – Cassandra’s Dream and … [Read more...]
Tyrrell returns to the field with new Arts Garage series
Do not expect the high level of production values that Lou Tyrrell, founding producing director of the late, lamented Florida Stage, delivered with regularity at Manalapan and at the Kravis Center, when he unveils his new venture -- The Theatre at Arts Garage -- this Tuesday night. Still, his commitment to American playwrights and to developing new work for the stage will be … [Read more...]
The art of anxiety: Dana Schutz’s disturbing visions
If ever it could be said of a person that she lives in her own imaginary world, American painter Dana Schutz would be that person. A 10-year survey of her work, Dana Schutz: If the Face Had Wheels, is currently on view at the Miami Art Museum until Feb. 26. The exhibit contains 30 paintings and 12 drawings. At first glance, the work seems colorful, cheerful even. However, … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 3-5
Art: Tomorrow, the Society of the Four Arts opens a new exhibit that takes its art viewers into the world of the Old West. Recapturing the Real West: The Collections of William I. Koch includes about 500 items, most of which have not been seen but have been loaned to the society by Koch, the industrialist, sailing champion and founder of Oxbow Energy Group. The collection … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Jan. 27-29
Theater: The theater event of the weekend is the debut of Parade Productions, a new company led by artistic director Kim St. Leon, which kicks off with Donald Margulies’ semi-autobiographical play Brooklyn Boy, at the Studio at Mizner Park, a flexible configuration playhouse on the site of the former International Museum of Cartoon Art. Jewish identity is often at the heart of … [Read more...]
Ballet Memphis show celebrates togetherness
If it’s true, as Sartre said, that Hell is other people, it isn’t a message that will find much support at Ballet Memphis. The dance company, now celebrating its 25th year, brought four dances to the Duncan Theatre on Friday night in the first of two performances (the show is repeated tonight). Twelve members of the 23-person troupe from the blues capital were on stage for a … [Read more...]