Lisa Yang and Chang Chen in A Brighter Summer Day (1991). A Brighter Summer Day: Since it premiered in 1991 only to be rejected by major film festivals, Edward Yang’s 236-minute feature (Criterion, $26.19 Blu-ray, $20.39 DVD) has been unavailable on home video in North America. Finally unveiled in American theaters two decades later and lauded by the few who attended this … [Read more...]
Seraphic Fire, times two: “Messiah” and “The First Noël”
By Rex Hearn George Frideric Handel, looking down from heaven, gathered his Baroque composer friends and revealed to them the mystery of the angels on earth called Seraphic Fire. “St. Cecilia must have chosen each member of The Sebastians orchestra,’’ he said, “because they are so good. And young Patrick Dupré Quigley, their conductor, used 17 perfect singers, as did I back … [Read more...]
At FAU Festival Rep: ‘She Loves Me’ sparkles, ‘Royal Family’ drags
In an effort to attract an audience to its Festival Rep, a South Florida summertime tradition for the past 17 years, Florida Atlantic University usually includes a musical as one of its two productions performed in rotating repertory. And the company of current theater students, recent graduates and a couple of professional guest artists often manages to pull off the musical … [Read more...]
Two views of beauty in Rubinstein, Plumb exhibits at Boca Museum
Fresh off its successful run at the Jewish Museum in New York City, the exhibit, Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power opened April 21 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, running through July 12 and organized by the Jewish Museum and curator Mason Klein. Although not on the shelves these days, the Helena Rubinstein cosmetic brand was legendary until 1988 when it was bought out by … [Read more...]
The View From Home 68: Family angst, goofy Godard, bleak Tsai, race matters; plus Rivette, rabbits and Britt
Force Majeure: For approximately the first two minutes of this confrontational, uncomfortable Swedish drama (Magnolia, $13.49 Blu-ray, $12.14 DVD), its central family of four is having a happy vacation in the Les Arcs ski resort in Savoie, France. Some laughs are exchanged and photographs are taken, as father Thomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke), his wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and … [Read more...]
‘Two Days, One Night’ an exquisite look at a moral dilemma
A cruel and sweeping movement of capitalism’s chilly hand leaves a damaged woman in its wake in Two Days, One Night, the Dardenne brothers’ latest quietly gripping moral inquiry into the human condition. In the great Belgian directors’ first feature since 2011’s extraordinary The Kid with a Bike, they’ve cast a bona fide international star, Marion Cotillard, whose combination … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 18-20
Theater: The second shoe of Palm Beach Dramaworks’ summer concert series drops this weekend with The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser’s quasi-operative romantic musical about a middle-aged Italian vineyard owner who falls for a San Francisco waitress. Loesser authorized the two-keyboard arrangements that the concert will employ, for a score that includes such arias as “My Heart … [Read more...]
Two rarities charm in second week of PB Chamber Festival
They buried Ernst von Dohnányi in Tallahassee back in 1960, and for some time afterward, it seemed like his compositions went with him. But the great Hungarian pianist, estimable composer and Florida State University professor is enjoying more attention these days from performers. His neo-Brahmsian aesthetic was out of fashion until very recently, but audiences enjoying the … [Read more...]
Tenor trio Forte wows Boca festival audience
By Dale King Not since Hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Wilma has a trio of any kind hit Boca Raton with the impact of Forte, the power-voiced operatic tenors whose nearly two-hour show Saturday night wrapped up the eighth annual Festival of the Arts Boca on a high and mighty note. The men with stellar, soaring voices played to four standing ovations and performed two encores — … [Read more...]
Music roundup: Cuarteto Latinoamericano at Flagler; PB Symphony brings out brass
I first heard the Cuarteto Latinoamericano in 1984 making their New York City debut. They were managed by a friend I’d met years before at Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. My friend asked for a report and I was honestly able to say they had great promise, and that all their black shocks of Brylcreemed hair would certainly win over the ladies. Fast … [Read more...]