Column

Florida Orchestra all wet and will be running a-fowl

The Florida Orchestra announced its 2003-2004 season at the Pasco Schools Center for the Arts at River Ridge, and the most exciting news is that the orchestra's new music director, Stefan Sanderling, will conduct the concert on April 4, 2004.

Music directors don't often conduct at outlying venues like ours, and to have the new one journey all the way to this upcountry is quite an honor.

Sanderling was named to the post in May, at the very tender age of 37, bringing with him a highly impressive resume. Most people don't even go to symphony orchestra concerts until they're in their 50s, and here Sanderling has led the best of the best symphonies in Europe, the United States, Australia, Japan and Canada long before he hit age 40.

The maestro's manner has been described as friendly and unassuming, but I must wonder if he or any other of Earth's creatures can ever supplant erstwhile resident conductor Thomas Wilkins in the hearts of local concert patrons. Wilkins' easy-going, intelligent manner was as beloved as the music his orchestra played here.

As before, the three New Port Richey concerts will be made up of a string of short excerpts from familiar and popular classical music and some pop music. The Oct. 5 concert features works by Tchaikovsky (Swan Lake), Resphighi (The Birds), Dvorak (The Wood Dove) and Saint-Saens (Carnival of the Animals, The Swan), among the eight selections on the program. With all that fowl stuff, it's called Cuckoo About Music.

James Connors will be featured on cello, and a conductor will be announced later.

The second program, on Dec. 7, is Water Music, and includes Henry Mancini's Moon River, J.P. Sousa's Hands Across the Sea March, Handel's Water Music, Mendelssohn's Calm Sea, Prosperous Voyage, among others.

Sanderling will conduct Season Highlights from the 2004-2005 Masterworks season on April 4, 2004, and the announcement promises "fun and insightful commentary about some of the fascinating personalities and circumstances that made this music possible."

Wise move. Local audiences love that informality, and if Sanderling is as charming as everyone says, it will go far to soothe those who still miss the personable Wilkins.

If you order your season tickets by March 24, you get prime seating for all three concerts for $69, with outer seats going for $63 and $60. After that, the prices go up $3 in each category. For tickets or a brochure, call the Florida Orchestra ticket center at (813) 286-2403 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286.

All the concerts are at 3 p.m. Single tickets (if any are available) go on sale Aug. 25.

Meanwhile, the Florida Orchestra will accompany the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay on April 4, 5 and 6 in Carl Orff's choral masterpiece, Carmina Burana, surely one of the most exciting compositions around.

I saw this stirring work performed a couple of years ago in Tampa, but the experience was completely ruined by a portly woman who sat next to me and alternately coughed and chug-a-lugged from a huge water bottle throughout the entire program. No matter how much all of us around her begged her to leave, she held her ground and drowned out the performers as best she could.

This year's performances are at 8 p.m. April 4 at Ruth Eckerd Hall; 8 p.m. April 5 at Mahaffey Theatre; and 7:30 p.m. at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Morsani Hall. Tickets are $20 to $42. Call the numbers above for tickets.

And just pray the woman with the cough doesn't show up.

I was thrilled to learn that hometown boy Michael Ursua is leaving his New York City digs for a while this summer to direct Annie Get Your Gun and Oliver! at Show Palace Dinner Theatre.

Ursua was recently praised by Newsday gossip columnist Liz Smith for his singing prowess in the Off-Broadway production of My Doris Day, a tribute that won praise from Miss Day herself.

Ursua got his theatrical start at Richey Suncoast Theatre years ago, when his sister, Shanna, dragged him to an audition and he was bitten by the theater bug. Shanna went on to perform around the world and dance in the first Broadway touring company of Cats and now is co-owner with her husband, Chris, of Sells' Broadway Dance Center on State Road 54.

Ursua has performed across the United States some, but has mostly stuck close to New York City, where he dances, sings and plays piano in Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway shows. Several years ago, he rescued a foundering production of Into the Woods at Richey Suncoast after the original director had to leave. The show turned out great, thanks to Ursua's deft direction, music direction and choreography.

He was most recently seen as The Padre in the Show Palace's Man of La Mancha.

Show Palace co-owner Nick Sessa is excited that Ursua is coming back to take over these shows, but not half as pleased as artistic director John Leggio.

Leggio is putting together a huuuuge production out of his new Broadway Bound performing arts studio on County Line Road that involves 170 students in 50 different acts, and he is quite happy to have someone take over directing chores at the Show Palace while he's otherwise occupied.

The Broadway Bound show, a three-act musical called Broadway from Stage to Screen and Everything In Between, will be June 26-28 at Hernando High School in Brooksville.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright