Sabina Cvilak, David Adam Moore, Matteo Peirone, Norman Shankle and Jurgita Adamonyte
in Cosi fan Tutte.
Music: Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote three operas with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Palm Beach Opera has presented the first two – Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni – over the past two seasons. Tonight, the company presents the last of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas, Cosi fan Tutte. In some ways the most important and radical of the three, it’s written to an original libretto and deals with questions of fidelity in a comic, but ultimately adult, way. Glyndebourne Festival veteran Stephen Lawless helms the production, which features Sabina Cvilak and Jurgita Adamonyte as Fiordiligi and Dorabella, and Norman Shankle and David Adam Moore as Ferrando and Guglielmo. That cast will appear tonight and Sunday afternoon; the alternate cast features Caitlin Lynch and Patricia Risley in the two female leads, and Joel Prieto and Andrew Schroeder as their male foils. Curtain is 7:30 at the Kravis Center, with tickets starting at $23. Call 833-7888 or visit www.pbopera.org, or reach out to the Kravis at 832-7469 or www.kravis.org.
Hilary Hahn.One of the finest violinists in the nation is Hilary Hahn, a prodigy whose first recording at 17 was a daring survey of the Bach solo literature, a choice that is most unusual but reflects the considerable intelligence of a woman who moonlights as a journalist for the great contemporary music Web portal Sequenza21. She appears in recital tonight at the Lyric Theatre in Stuart with the fine Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa. The two have been touring with the Beethoven Spring Sonata as well as sonatas by two American mavericks: Charles Ives (Sonata No. 4) and George Antheil. Hahn has been a good advocate for American music since she recorded Edgar Meyer’s concerto on a disc with the Barber concerto, and her newest disc features the concerto of Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon, so expect musical empathy and impressive mastery of difficult material. Tickets for the 8 p.m. Ovation Concerts show are $75. Call 772-286-7827 or visit www.lyrictheatre.com.
A scene from Outside the Law.Film: Just in time for you to fill out your Oscar ballot is the local opening of Outside the Law, a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film from Algeria. It is a look at that nation’s struggle for independence from France, as seen through the personal battles of three brothers. One is a soldier, another an imprisoned revolutionary and the third a money-grubbing hustler. In this epic film – one of the most expensive ever made in Algeria – they seek bitter revenge for the way they were thrown off their land as youngsters, with family and country as the priorities. Within that context, the well-acted, involving film takes the shape of a gangster picture. Opening today. — H. Erstein
Erin Joy Schmidt, Jim Ballard and Sarah Grace Wilson in Dinner with Friends.Theater: Palm Beach Dramaworks usually trafficks in heavyweight classics from writers like Shaw, O’Neill or Ibsen, but they now turn to a contemporary master, Donald Margulies, and his Pulitzer Prize winner from 2000, Dinner with Friends. Dramatic, but with plenty of painful humor, it is the tale of two couples, longtime friends whose lives are deeply affected in unexpected ways when one couple splits up over an act of infidelity. Resident director J. Barry Lewis helms a production that features Erin Joy Schmidt and Jim Ballard as nurturing food writers and Sarah Grace Wilson and Eric Martin Brown – married in real life – as the divorcing couple. Opening today and running through April 17. Call (561) 514-4042 for tickets. — H. Erstein