Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Stage

First to take the stage

By JOHN FLEMING
Published November 12, 2006

When Toronto unveiled its new opera house in September, the opening production was Wagner's Der Ring des Niebelungen, which made history as the first time the four-opera cycle was performed in Canada.

The Carnival Center for the Performing Arts isn't quite making a Wagnerian splash with the programming for its opening season. Still, the new complex will host quite a few excellent performances this season that can't be enjoyed in other parts of Florida, particularly in opera and dance.

If Florida Grand Opera's first production in the center falls a little short of Ring proportions, or at least length, it does feature more than 200 performers and soprano Angela Brown in the title role of Verdi's grandest opera, Aida, continuing through Nov. 30. The company premieres David Carlson's Anna Karenina April 28-May 13.

Miami City Ballet has gained a national reputation under artistic director Edward Villella, and the company is dancing four programs at the Carnival Center, including Anthony Tudor's Lilac Garden and two works by George Balanchine, Raymonda Variations and Symphony in Three Movements, March 2-4.

In modern dance, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performs three programs Feb. 23-March 3.

Michael Tilson Thomas will lead the New World Symphony in a Shostakovich program with cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Feb. 24. Soprano Renee Fleming joins Tilson Thomas and company in Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs on May 5.

The Cleveland Orchestra will be in residence at the center on two occasions during the winter. Music director Franz Welser-Most will be on the podium for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Jan. 19-20 and Mahler's Symphony No. 1 Jan. 26-27.

Judy Drucker's Concert Association of Florida has been bringing great artists to South Florida for decades, and its first season as a resident company at the center includes a concert version of Verdi's Il Trovatore, with soprano Maria Guleghina and tenor Salvatore Licitra, Dec. 9. Violinist Itzhak Perlman gives a recital March 12. Soprano Angela Gheorghiu sings arias from operas by Puccini, Bellini, Bizet and Massenet on March 23. Pianist Evgeny Kissin plays a recital May 7. On the concert association's dance lineup, tap dancer Savion Glover brings his classical program, performed to the music of Vivaldi and Bach, to the center Feb. 22, and American Ballet Theatre is there March 8-11 with Swan Lake.

Carnival Center

This week, the Florida Grand Opera stages Mozart's The Abduction From the Seraglio and the Classical Theater of Harlem performs King Lear. To see the full season schedule, and to purchase tickets, go to www.carnivalcenter.org or call the box office: (305) 949-6722 .

[Last modified November 10, 2006, 09:54:45]