There was nothing miserable about the Actors’ Playhouse production of the epic musical Les Miserables, the nominating committee for the 34th annual Carbonell Awards said Tuesday as it showered the show with 12 nominations. The adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel led the field vying for bragging rights of excellence in professional theater in South Florida. Les Miz, as the … [Read more...]
Claremont Trio offers high spirits, taste in Four Arts concert
The Claremont Trio began in modest fashion 11 years ago at the Juilliard School, and since then the threesome has made well-received recordings and built up a strong following. And the three players -- violinist Emily Bruskin and her twin sister, cellist Julia Bruskin, and the Canadian-born pianist Donna Kwong -- have shown some adventurousness in regard to repertory. They've … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Feb. 5-10
Art: On Tuesday at the Norton Museum of Art, an exhibit opens featuring the work of fashion photographer Richard Avedon (1923-2004). Avedon revolutionized the look of fashion photography, and did much to turn photographers and models into celebrities. His innovative and imaginative photographs appeared in all the major magazines, especially Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. The … [Read more...]
With Oscar nominations, Academy goes the populist route
The first results of the Academy Awards’ grand experiment to cheapen -- uh, I mean widen -- the Best Picture nominations were announced this morning, and predictably, there were a couple of films that made the cut that would not have come close in past years. Let’s just call it the Blind Side Effect, named for the sentimental white-family-aids-the-illiterate-black-athlete … [Read more...]
Cleveland Orchestra does right by Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein always was torn between the needs of his composing and conducting lives, and in the end, the lure of the podium proved too strong for him to write as much music as he said he wanted to. In a previous Miami residency, Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra tackled the first of the three symphonies Bernstein composed, and Friday night they brought us … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks, Jan. 29-Feb. 3
This weekend, the Houston Symphony Orchestra comes to town as part of a limited national tour, and it’s bringing the universe along with it. Conductor Hans Graf will lead the Houstonians (and the women of its chorus) in the great seven-part tone poem The Planets, by English composer Gustav Holst, accompanied by high-definition NASA images of our universe projected on a giant … [Read more...]
Violinist O’Connor to play genre-busting recital in Wellington
Some musicians are so adept at different styles that they get tagged with the phrase "they can play anything." Fewer actually earn the distinction, since most don't get the chance, or even seek, to play every style. American violinist Mark O'Connor is the exception, since the 48-year-old has practically been there and done all that. He conquered Gypsy jazz and swing while … [Read more...]
Second cast outstanding in PB Opera’s ‘Otello’
Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello was the basis for the libretto Arrigo Boito wrote for Giuseppe Verdi, who at the time Boito approached him about the opera was 71 years old and considered himself retired. But three years later, in February 1887, Otello had its triumphant premiere at La Scala, and this work plus Verdi's final opera, Falstaff, are considered the pinnacle of the … [Read more...]
New West Boca theater troupe to bow with ‘Bat Boy’
Welcome to the area the Slow Burn Theatre Company, a new professional troupe that is the passion project of Patrick Fitzwater and Matthew Korinko, two former St. Louis performers-directors who moved here in 2008 and have wanted to start their own stage operation ever since. They will be the first to acknowledge that the shaky economy does not make this an ideal time to begin … [Read more...]
Composer Frazelle finds inspiration in South, nature
Even though his art has gone in a very different direction, Kenneth Frazelle will even now defend the severe modernist composers who used to dominate the world of classical music, including his own teacher at the Juilliard School, Roger Sessions. “He did not want you to write the way he did, he wanted you to write what you wanted,” said Frazelle, who added that Sessions often … [Read more...]