Only months into his first term as president, Ronald Reagan barely survived an assassination attempt as he was leaving a hotel in Washington, D.C. The would-be assassin, John Hinckley, fired six “devastator” bullets designed to explode and spew hot shrapnel on impact. The first bullet hit Press Secretary James Brady in the head, crippling him for life. Other bullets wounded a … [Read more...]
Arts preview 2015-16: The season in Palm Beach County art
Think of a bento box and you will get the picture of what art in Palm Beach County looks like this season: traditional with a few twists. Among them is an exhibition of provocative works by a performance artist who is also an activist, and another show dedicated to the little-known works of a reclusive Italian-American artist who died in Rome 11 years ago. Packing tape, golf … [Read more...]
Fine Orff, messy presentation from Master Chorale
Everything about the Master Chorale of South Florida looked professional until the concert began at the Wold Performing Arts Center of Lynn University on Feb. 22. A choir member took the mic to appeal for funds: What the funds were used for was not explained. Better to capture the names and addresses of the packed audience and mail out an appeal and tell the people why. Next, … [Read more...]
Radiant ‘Neruda Songs,’ zesty Beethoven Ninth close Cleveland residency
The five songs for mezzo-soprano and orchestra that Peter Lieberson composed in 2004 to the poems of Pablo Neruda have taken on something of a sacred aura since the death of Lieberson’s wife, Lorraine, in 2005. With Lieberson’s own death in 2011, also from cancer, the Neruda Songs wear a cloak of tragedy once you know their back story, much as Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder … [Read more...]
Bernini Quartet masterful in Flagler program
String quartets these days are relatively big business, and listeners have many opportunities to hear live and recorded performances of masterworks (and otherwise) by fine ensembles from around the world. Most of the time we hear quartets with a modern edge, on instruments with metal strings whose sound cuts through the sonic murk of our noisy everyday. But when the string … [Read more...]
‘Sister Act’: An agreeable dose of nunsense
It is a show business axiom that nuns are inherently funny. And nuns learning to get in touch with their show biz side are even funnier. Those seeking evidence of that notion need look no further than the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie, Sister Act, or ― since it is currently on view at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale ― the stage musical of the same name based on the … [Read more...]
Silence helps abstract masterworks reveal themselves
No matter what museum in the world one visits, there is always a crowd and with it comes murmuring. The museum experience then becomes like watching a movie with the director’s commentary on. Some weeks ago something highly unusual happened. I found myself alone with three creations by two American masters of painting: Clyfford Still and Joan Mitchell. The miracle took … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Oct. 7-9
Theater: Little Shop of Horrors, Roger Corman’s 1960 low-budget sci-fi flick about a man-eating plant and a nebbish florist’s love for an abused Skid Row tootsie, must have seemed odd source material for Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (the songwriting team behind such Disney animated features as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast), but they turned it into a … [Read more...]