Critic’s Choice

By Lawrence Budmen

Tamara Wilson

Tamara Wilson

It has been three years since Florida Grand Opera has presented an opera by Giuseppe Verdi (Nabucco) and that drought is about to end. On Saturday night the company opens a production of Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) at Miami’s Arsht Center. Based on the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden at a ball in 1792, the opera is prime middle-period Verdi. FGO’s production retains the original Swedish setting rather than the Colonial Boston venue foisted upon Verdi by censors. 

The cast looks promising. Tenor Rafael Davila, who previously sang in FGO productions of Tosca and Carmen and recently made a well-regarded Met debut, plays Gustavo, the doomed monarch. Soprano Tamara Wilson, the 2016 Richard Tucker Award winner, sings the heroine Amelia. Veteran baritone Todd Thomas is Count Anckarström, mezzo-soprano Dana Beth Miller (the impressive Adalgisa of FGO’s Norma last season) portrays the soothsayer Ulrica and soprano Elena Galván plays Oscar, the king’s page. Ramon Tebar conducts.

Florida Grand Opera presents Un Ballo en Maschera 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, and 8 p.m. May 2, 5 and 6 at the Arsht Center in Miami and 7:30 p.m. May 11 and 13 at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. Jonathan Burton and Alexandra LoBianco play Gustavo and Amelia on April 30 and May 5 and 13.  fgo.org; 800-741-1010.

__________

The New World Symphony‘s annual “New Work” program showcases new and recent scores by upcoming creative artists and revivals of works by important modernists. Saturday’s diverse edition features poet Roger Reeves collaborating with New World players in the premiere of his choreo-poem JOAN or The Light Came in the Name of the Voices. John Supko’s broken on the wheel of night for viola and electronics and Oscar Bettison’s Lights in Ashes (in a new version for chamber orchestra) also receive first performances. The program concludes with a new multimedia staged version of Niccolò Castiglioni”s winter themed Inverno In-ver. Michael Tilson Thomas, New World Percussion Consort director Michael Linville and conducting fellow Dean Whiteside share the podium.

The New World Symphony presents “New Work” 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the New World Center in Miami Beach.  nws.edu; 305-673-3331.

 

Posted in Uncategorized


Leave a Comment








Wed Apr 26, 2017
at 12:28 pm
No Comments