Festival of the Arts Boca: The operatic world, unlike what many casual observers may think, is flush with youthful activity, as young singers try to scale the heights of musical Parnassus and see the stages of the world. Last night, the Boca Symphonia performed the soundtrack of the 1942 classic Casablanca with a showing of the film, but tonight the orchestra and conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos return to showcase operatic music with film ties. The stars of Opera Goes to the Movies are soprano Angela Meade, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and tenor James Valenti. They’ll perform classics such as Casta diva from Bellini’s Norma (and from The Bridges of Madison County), When I am laid in earth, from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (and The Man Who Cried), and Questo o quella from Verdi’s Rigoletto (and Wall Street). The show begins at 7:30 tonight under the big tent at the Mizner Park Amphitheater. Tickets start at $25. Call 866-571-2787 or visit www.festivaloftheartsboca.org.
Art: There are only three weeks left before Rembrandt’s 20 dirty little erotic secrets go back to hiding in the closet. Since November, these erotic etchings by the Dutch painter have been out in the open for everyone to see at the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach.
Don’t let the name of the venue intimidate you. We are all humans, and this is Rembrandt, after all. Not just any Rembrandt, but particularly revealing works (in terms of technique, too) that have never been seen together. Indeed, this is the first time all 20 works – the only known existing erotic etchings by the artist — are presented for public exhibition. You can find them in the newly created Rembrandt Gallery of the museum.
Among those displayed figures Adam and Eve (1638), Diana Bathing (ca. 1631) and one personal favorite, Jupiter and Antiope (ca. 1659). There is another etching by the same title dating to 1631, but it is the 1659 one that gives us the dramatic lighting with Jupiter creeping up on princess Antiope while she sleeps in the nude. The World Erotic Art Museum is located at 1205 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, and is open Monday through Thursday, 11a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight. Tickets are $15. No one under 18 admitted. Call 305-532-9336. – G. Sarmiento
Film: This is wrap-up weekend for the Miami International Film Festival, one of the premier film events of the nation, with an emphasis on movies from Latin and South America, but also plenty of quality domestic independent films. To single out a couple that are screening this weekend, you will probably like One Night Stand and The Woman in the Fifth. The former is not what it sounds like, no sex is involved, but instead it is a documentary about the creation of 15-minute musicals, written and produced in a 24-hour period, starring several of Broadway’s current mainstays. It screens Saturday and Sunday nights. “The Fifth” of The Woman in the Fifth refers to the Paris neighborhood where American Ethan Hawke loses his wallet and begins an affair with Kristin Scott Thomas. Ah, Paree! This one plays tonight. Screenings are all around Miami. The best thing to do is head to the festival’s website, www.miamifilmfestival.com.
A scene from Come Fly Away.
Theater: Beginning Tuesday night at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach and playing through the week is Twyla Tharp’s latest dance-concert-cum-theater-piece, Come Fly Away. Like her earlier Tony Award-winning Movin’ Out, which featured the music of Billy Joel, this one marries Tharp’s idiosyncratic dance moves to recordings by the late Frank Sinatra. Fittingly, perhaps, it takes place in a saloon, but one that happens to have an onstage orchestra. Don’t go for the plot, because there’s not much there, but Tharp’s energetic, quirky choreography is a wonder to behold. Tickets start at $25 and up, on a sliding scale based on demand, not unlike airline tickets. Call (561) 832-8471 for the current prices.
Music: This weekend is a good one for two titans of classical music in one night, as the Japanese-born violinist Midori (born Midori Goto) arrives for a concert with the Minnesota Orchestra and its conductor, Osmo Vanska. Midori, who’s had a stellar international career for nearly 30 years since she burst onto the scene at age 11, will perform the big Violin Concerto (in D minor, Op. 47) of Sibelius, one of the very finest of all late Romantic concerti. Vanska, who’s recorded all the Beethoven symphonies with his band, performs one of the best-loved of them all in the Symphony No. 5 (in C minor, Op. 67). Rounding out the bill of fare is the Variations on a Theme by Haydn (Op. 56a) of Brahms. The concert is at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Kravis Center; tickets start at $15. Call 832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org.
String quartets crowd the field over the next few days, too, with foursomes on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday.
Sunday afternoon, it’s the Jerusalem Quartet, an Israeli foursome that’s been playing together for nearly 20 years. The Society of the Four Arts brings them together for a concert featuring the Quartet No. 2 (in G, Op. 18, No. 2) of Beethoven, the Quartet No. 4 (in D, Op. 83) of Shostakovich and the Quartet No. 2 (in A minor, Op. 51, No.2) of Johannes Brahms. The concert begins at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15. Call 655-7226 or visit www.fourarts.org.
Monday night, the young Ariel Quartet, also an Israeli group, concludes the Young Artists series at the Kravis Center. Now based in at the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music, the Ariel will play Beethoven’s Quartet No. 6 (in B-flat, Op. 18, No. 6), the Quartet No. 1 (Kreutzer Sonata) of Leos Janacek, and the Quartet No. 14 (in D minor, D. 810) of Franz Schubert, the much-beloved Death and the Maiden Quartet. The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Rinker Playhouse in the Kravis Center. Tickets are $30. Call 832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org.
Finally, The Classical Café series at the Duncan Theatre concludes Wednesday with the Afiara String Quartet, an all-Canadian ensemble that formed in San Francisco in 2006 and quickly snatched up awards such as top prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition.
On the program are two key canonical works: the Quartet No. 11 (in F minor, Op. 95), of Beethoven (nicknamed the Quartetto Serioso), and the Quartet No. 13 (in G, Op. 106) of Dvorak.
The Afiara also will play the Quartet No. 2 of Boston-based composer Brett Abigana, whose roommate at Juilliard was David Samuel, the Afiara violist. When Samuel’s mother died, Abigana wrote this quartet in tribute to her memory, Afiara first violinist Valerie Li wrote in an email message. Each of the four movements describes some part of Betty Samuel’s personality, according to Abigana’s program notes.
“We as a quartet really enjoy performing this piece because we feel it is very accessible, and resonates emotionally and powerfully with our audiences,” Li wrote. The concert begins at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Stage West black-box theater at the Duncan. Tickets are $27. Call 561-868-3309 or visit www.duncantheatre.com.