Good singing can get an opera audience past uninspired acting, but when it comes to the heroine of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, it’s best to have someone who can do both well. And on Friday night, Palm Beach Opera did. In the Italian soprano Chiara Taigi, who opened its current run of Puccini’s “shabby little shocker” from 1900, Palm Beach Opera had an actress whose Floria Tosca … [Read more...]
Theater roundup 1: ‘Sound of Music’ without syrup; a rethought ‘Les Miz’
There must be some theatergoers who have never seen Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, but not many. Performed perpetually by high schools and community troupes, it would be hard to miss, and then there’s that syrupy, Oscar-winning move version that keeps showing up on cable TV. Director-choreographer Marc Robin gave himself quite a challenge when he approached the … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Riveting ‘Angry Men,’ half-accomplished ‘Cane’
The “golden age of television” of the 1950s produced many classic dramas that went on to further acclaim in other media. Think of Requiem for a Heavyweight, or Marty, or The Miracle Worker. Certainly earning a spot on that list is Reginald Rose’s dramatized civics lesson, Twelve Angry Men, which the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has dusted off and given a vigorous mounting that makes … [Read more...]
Pianist Gilbert impressive in Chopin evening
Unlike many younger musicians these days, Leonard Gilbert doesn’t go in for a lot of demonstrative behavior at the keyboard. The 19-year-old Canadian pianist, who recently won first place in his country’s Chopin Piano Competition, shows admirable form at the instrument, letting his fingers and arms do the bulk of the work as he plays. And as his recital Saturday night at the … [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...]
The Hapster Awards, 2009 edition
Producers, who will accept any award, covet them. Actors, who probably do not realize they are rarely complimentary, list them in their program bios. What are they? The annual Hapster Awards, given for achievement -- usually “dubious’ -- in theater during the past year. So here are the 2009 Hapsters (Sorry, times are tough and we couldn’t afford envelopes): Best Play about … [Read more...]
Folk artist celebrates Americans in their 90s
A self-proclaimed contemporary folk artist who used to create faux-Pompeii scenes for a South Beach nightclub is currently paying tribute to nimble nonagenarians in a series of paintings on exhibit this month at Fort Lauderdale City Hall. JoAnn Nava's Living Treasures series honors four Americans in their 90s, including a fishing guide on the Canadian boundary waters named … [Read more...]