As part of our Guide to the Arts, which published in PRIME Magazine on Oct. 6, entertainment writer Ben Crandell offered his Critic’s Picks for the best in pop shows coming up in South Florida.
New World Symphony
Oct. 19-20, New World Center, Miami Beach. Tickets start at $110+ at NWS.edu.
Artistic director Stéphane Denève will conduct the New World Symphony in a compelling examination of human resilience in the face of brutal autocracy in a double bill of Viktor Ullmann’s opera “The Kaiser of Atlantis,” with a libretto by Peter Kien, and Kurt Weill’s “The Seven Deadly Sins,” a ballet chanté composed to a libretto by Bertolt Brecht. Ullmann and Kien collaborated on “The Kaiser of Atlantis” while interned in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt (they would die in Auschwitz). Weill composed “The Seven Deadly Sins” in 1933, as he and Brecht witnessed the rise of Nazi power in Germany. Joining Denève for these special productions is innovative director Yuval Sharon, who partnered with NWS on “Making the Right Choices: A John Cage Celebration” in 2013, and soprano Danielle de Niese, making her NWS debut. The Oct. 19 production also can be seen for free during a Wallcast screening in SoundScape Park just outside New World Center.
Sun Sentinel
New World Symphony’s Oct. 19 performance of “The Kaiser of Atlantis” and “The Seven Deadly Sins” will be offered in a free Wallcast screening on the side of New World Center in SoundScape Park. (South Florida Sun Sentinel file)
Florida Grand Opera
Nov. 16-17 and Nov. 19, Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami; Dec. 5 and Dec. 7, Broward Center, Fort Lauderdale. Subscription and ticket information at FGO.org.
The last time production director Jeffrey Marc Buchman trained his spirited imagination on “The Magic Flute” for Florida Grand Opera in 2013, the young hero of Mozart’s timeless opera, Tamino, was an adolescent boy of the 1950s, set in a raucous, retro wonderland of period costuming, wigs and an Elvis Presley-inspired Papageno. Critics were enchanted; South Florida Classical Review calling it “a spectacular production.” For his new take on “The Magic Flute,” Buchman has found inspiration in the world of fantasy role-playing board games. In a statement about this new production, Buchman says: “In a world that often feels fragmented, the communal experience of attending the opera, just like that of role-playing board games, offers a sense of belonging and shared purpose. By merging these two worlds, this production celebrates the enduring power of storytelling to unite, inspire and transform. It is a tribute to the child in all of us, whose imagination knows no bounds.”
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Nov. 19, Kravis Center, West Palm Beach. Subscription and ticket information at Kravis.org.
The Kravis Center’s expansive annual Classical Concert Series opens its 2024-25 season with one of the world’s top classical ensembles, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, on its first North American tour with fast-rising chief conductor-designate Klaus Mäkelä. The program will include Prokofiev’s melodious Violin Concerto No. 2, a showcase for violinist Lisa Batiashvili, and Rachmaninoff’s captivating Second Symphony after opening with the overture to “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by Mikhail Glinka, “the father of Russian music.” The 28-year-old Mäkelä, currently chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic and music director of the Orchestre de Paris, is scheduled to take over the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2027, the same season he assumes the role of music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
‘The Great Yes, The Great No’
Dec. 5-7, Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami. Tickets start at $50+ at ArshtCenter.org.
Another stimulating collaboration between the Arsht Center and acclaimed South African visual artist William Kentridge, “The Great Yes, The Great No” is part play, part chamber opera set on a 1941 sea voyage from Vichy France to Martinique. Based on true events, the ship’s passenger list includes a who’s who of 20th-century thinkers, such as anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss and Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, and Kentridge also sprinkles in famous figures of his own design, including Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon and legendary entertainer Josephine Baker. The captain on this surrealist journey is Charon, mythical ferryman of the River Styx.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Jan. 24-25, Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami; Jan. 27, Kravis Center, West Palm Beach. Subscription and ticket information at ClevelandOrchestra.com/Miami.
The celebrated ensemble returns for the 18th edition of its annual Miami residency, opening with a program led by acclaimed young conductor Kahchun Wong. In September, the 38-year-old Singaporean added to his distinguished international résumé in becoming principal conductor and artistic advisor of Manchester’s iconic symphony orchestra, The Hallé. Wong will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra and violinist Sayaka Shoji in a program featuring Beethoven’s esteemed Violin Concerto and Ravel’s sumptuous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”