Page 19 - Southern Exposure - March '24

Southern Exposure, Page 19

theatre haPPeningS

Rex Recommends

By Rex Hearn
Just three visiting orchestras are left in Kravis Center’s Juliet ballet music. The brilliant Daniil Trifonov plays the Palm Beach Opera
Classical Music Series formally known as the Regional Mozart concerto. Next, on Friday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. From March 1 to 3 at the
Arts Concerts, once so ably led by the late Sharon and Saturday, March 9 at 2 p.m., the Vienna Philharmonic Kravis Center you will hear
McDaniel. You can look forward to hearing the Rotterdam led by guest conductor, Franz Welser-Möst plays Berg’s the best singers around in
Philharmonic from Holland, the Vienna Philharmonic Three Pieces for Orchestra; Mahler’s 9th Symphony and Offenbach’s wonderful The
from Austria and England’s Academy of St. Martin in the Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor. Founded in 1842 Tales of Hoffman. These are
Fields. the Vienna Phil is the oldest professional orchestra in the four fun stories in which the
Kravis Center world. Lastly, on March 18 at 7:30 p.m., the Academy of lead male never gets the girl!
On Monday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m., the 100-year-old St. Martin in the Fields led from the first violin chair by On Friday, March 1 at 7:30
Rotterdam Philharmonic conducted by Lahav Shani will the great Joshua Bell will thrill you with their vitality and p.m. and Sunday, March 3
play Arvo Pärt’s Swansong; Mozart’s Piano Concerto his solo violin playing; program to be announced. Call at 2 p.m., tenor Kang Wang
No. 9, in E flat Major, K.271; and Prokofiev’s Romeo & the box office for more information at (561) 832-7469. sings Hoffman in his debut;
soprano Brandie Sutton sings the four heroines and baritone
Zachary Nelson sings the four villains. On Saturday, March 2
at 7:30 p.m. tenor Dominick Chenes is Hoffman.
Soprano Erika Baikoff is the heroine and the great Mark
A Delavan, who was Wotan in The Met’s last Wagner Ring Cycle,
lends his rich baritone to the role of the villain. David Stern
conducts. Greg Ritchey is chorus master. David Gately directs.
COLONOSCOPY Call the box office for more information at (561) 833-7888.
Palm Beach Symphony
Now first-class under the leadership of conductor Gerard
Schwarz, two concerts remain this season in the Kravis Center:
CAN SAVE p.m. The first concert is a World Premiere composition by
Wednesday, March 6 at 7 p.m. and Thursday, April 25 at 7:30
Aaron Kernis followed by Emanuel Ax in Mozart’s Piano
Concerto No 25 in C Major.K.503. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony
No. 4 ends this concert. The last April 25th date begins with
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Ignat Solzhenitsyn at
YOUR LIFE the keyboard and the massed choirs of Miami’s Frost School
of Music in Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, his last, No 9.
(Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125). Solzhenitsyn is indeed
the son of Nobel Laureate, the late Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,
Soviet-era dissident. Soloists in the Choral Symphony are:
Hayley Lipke, soprano; Robynne Redman, mezzo; Joseph
McBrayer, tenor; and Keith Klein, bass. Gerard Schwarz,
conducts both concerts. The Palm Beach Symphony is now
in its 50th year. Call the box office for additional information,
(561) 281-0145.

Palm Beach Opera’s Tosca

This performance of Puccini’s Tosca was a feast for the
eyes, brilliant scenery, perfect period costumes and a thrilling
church scene thronged with bishops, clergy, choristers and
communicants in Act l.
Greg Ritchey’s chorus singers were excellent but the
Stephen and Marsha Rabb orchestra sounded muted; none of Puccini’s orchestral
brilliance came through to where I was sitting. Standout of the
Jan. 28 matinee was soprano, Anastasia Bartoli, from Florence,
Italy, making three debuts as the opera singer Floria Tosca:
her USA and Palm Beach Opera debut, and amazingly, for
FLORIDA’S HIGHEST RANKED a soprano of such high caliber, her first Puccini leading lady
role! Bartoli was superb. A Callas in the making at her Lisbon
GASTROENTEROLOGY PROGRAM Traviata best. Tenor Mario Chang’s opening aria, Recondita
armonia disappointed as did most of his performance, he
3 YEARS IN A ROW excelled however in the last duet with Bartoli of Act lll. Baron
Scarpia, sung by bass-baritone Greer Grimsley did not have
the threatening presence to scare the daylights out of cast and
audience, so necessary to make the plot compulsive. This may
It’s recommended that adults start getting colonoscopies at have been due to Omer Ben Seadia’s direction, everything
age 45, so don’t delay your chance for early detection. The seemed subdued from beginning to end, especially the firing
squad soldiers and the guards on the battlements of Castel
colorectal specialists at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital Gandolfo in Act lll. They slouched limpidly, as if bored out of

utilize state-of-the-art techniques to diagnose and treat colon their minds. Nothing was spirited or military about them. The
touch of comedy in this dramatic work, libretto by Luigi Illica
conditions. From routine screenings to the most complex and Giuseppe Giacosa is provided by the Sacristan of the church
surgeries, trust our experts to provide world class care. Schedule of Sant Andrea della Valle, the wonderful Adelmo Guidarelli. His
hand and body gestures spoke volumes! The roles of Angelotti,
your colonoscopy today with one of Florida’s top hospitals. Spoletta, Sciarrone, The Jailer and Shepherd were from Palm
Beach Opera’s excellent resident and studio artists, respectively:
Edward Thomas Bland, Devin Eatmon, David Wolfe, Jacob
ClevelandClinicFlorida.org/Colonoscopy | 844.290.5764 O’Shea and Maya Brown, all of whom gave accomplished
performances. Lighting designer, Joe Beumer, has yet to learn
that one can have dark backgrounds and still succeed in showing
the faces of characters as they sing their parts. He does the artists
a disservice. And the audience too. Alas, a minority, rush for
the exits to get to their cars, ignoring respect due to the artists
who give so much. Improvements made some time ago make
for swifter departures now from parking garages, over times
past. The next opera, The Tales of Hoffman is from March 1 to
Weston | Coral Springs | Wellington | West Palm Beach 3, with the great Mark Delavan. Call the box office for more
information, (561) 833-7888.

Theatre Happenings on page 20