Palm Beach Entertainment: Events, movies, restaurants, nightlife & more | pbpulse.com

By Air Flights to Lima from Ayacucho(45 minutes, contact Star Peru, www.starperu.com or LC Peru, www.lcperu.com.pe, to book flights or for more information), usually only in the early mornings and only several times a week. Aeropuerto Coronel FAP Alfredo Mendivil Duarte – Ejercito 950, Tel: 62-31-2418. By Bus There isn’t a central bus terminal in Ayacucho, however, [...]
New World Review

Dudu Fisher was cantor at Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue before a production of ‘Les Miserables’ changed his career.

Dudu Fisher is getting ready for his annual homecoming.

He’s not talking about his native Israel, where he began as a cantor, or even Broadway, where he gained worldwide fame as Jean Valjean in the theater phenomenon Les Miserables.

No, he’s talking about the Kravis Center, which he says is "like coming home for me. I come there every year. I especially like it in the wintertime, when it’s freezing in New York. But this year, it’s been very warm in New York, and one of the best things in Florida is that when it’s 80 degrees there you remember that it’s 40-minus in New York. That makes my day."

He adds humorously that because there are so many New Yorkers in South Florida, "you save a lot of time traveling, because people will come from all over to see you in Florida, and I don’t have to fly all over the place. It saves me hours in the plane."

Fisher’s joking – kind of – but it’s true that he logs a heck of a lot of miles in his career. At the time of this interview, he was back in his native Israel for a few days, after spending time in South Africa, where he was once a cantor. And after "resting a couple of days," he was headed to Florida.

Directions, invite a friend

But international travel isn’t anything new to Fisher. At 22, he became the cantor for Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue, after spending three years in the Israeli defense forces, and soon found himself becoming a worldwide ambassador for traditional cantorial music.

The trajectory of his career, however, would change again in London, while watching a performance of Les Miserables. Although he’d never acted before, Fisher auditioned for a Hebrew production of the play, which became the longest-running production in Israel.

Eventually, Les Miz producer Cameron Mackintosh invited him to Broadway, where he granted him the unprecedented privilege of not performing Friday nights or Saturday afternoon shows, in accordance with the Jewish Sabbath.

"He gave me a chance," Fisher says. "It was really extraordinary. He brought someone else in to do the shows that I could not do, and paid them the star’s salary for being at home all week and just doing those two shows.

"Mackintosh is a special person to do something like this. I asked him why he did it, and he said ‘First of all, because I love you -and don’t worry, I made money on you still – but also, because so many people who had seen the show already came again because of you.’"

Unfortunately, to date, Mackintosh has not started a trend among Broadway producers.

Fisher says he lost several roles that he had been considered for because he couldn’t do those critical shows on the Sabbath.

"Money talks," he says. "That’s how things happen. But I can’t thank Cameron enough. He changed my life. You can’t compare my life before Broadway to after Broadway."

And one of those big changes is Fisher’s song list for his shows, a "big part" of which comes from Les Miserables. Those include Bring Him Home, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables and the showstopper I Dreamed a Dream. That’s because "that show is one of my main things in life. I am not exaggerating. And it’s something I have to talk about."

Having done the show and being able to mix those songs in with his traditional Jewish music makes Fisher’s show attractive to so many people, from South Africa to good old Branson, Mo., the theater town recently wracked by tornado damage, where Fisher will perform in May:

"There’s never been an Israeli Jewish observant religious guy who happens to have been on Broadway, there," says Fisher. "I did a trial run last year in Branson, and people were so open to all kinds of music. They just have to hear it."

leslie_streeter@pbpost.com

Palm Beach Entertainment: Events, movies, restaurants, nightlife & more | pbpulse.com

In November of last year one of the wine industry’s most venerable magazines, the Quarterly Wine Review, ceased publication. Wine, says owner Richard Elia, has lost its romance. The charm, the characters, the gentle hedonism, the mischievous sparkle; all have been losing ground at a devastating rate to marketing and point systems. In many ways he is right, from huge companies whose product just happens to be wine, to raging consumerism and out of control bandwagons, things can look a little bleak from a certain angle. A recent YouTube video shows a sommelier vigorously molesting his glass of wine (his glass in this case being a convenient lab beaker…) with a hand-held electric blender so as to better and more quickly aerate his fine aged wine. This is the face of the apocalypse, I thought; I rent my clothes, rubbed ash in my hair and spent a week wandering around in sackcloth.
New World Review

It might not have been to everyone’s liking, but the recent production of Charles Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette marked an important moment for Palm Beach Opera.

Here was an actual new production of this work, a fine example of French Romantic opera that was cannily reset in post-World War II Italy, and that was acted on a bridge and staircase as well as in front of a moving wall that served as a Verona street, Frere Laurent’s cell, and the lovebirds’ wedding boudoir.

While stage director Kevin Newbury’s political conceit served mainly to showcase some beautiful costumes (other ideas, such as vintage posters for the walls, were too small), it was a handsome, interesting presentation that did not get in the way of its familiar tragic story.

The American soprano Nicole Cabell looked lovely in a yellow dress for her first appearance, and sang with ease and comfort throughout, from the Je veux vire showpiece of the first act to the death scene in the Capulet family tomb. It’s a light but strong voice, and it sounds good in this kind of repertory.

Her Romeo, the Mexican tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz, proved to have a lot of power that stayed with him throughout the work, but his first entrances were strained and reedy, with problems of intonation as he struggled to center his voice. It got a good bit better as the opera progressed, though, and he sang throughout with passion and fervent commitment.

The great surprise of the performance was the singing of the Russian bass Alexander Vinogradov, who possesses a huge voice of Rene Pape-style strength and color. As Frere Laurent, Vinogradov made the most of his scene, and with him as a crucial anchor, the quartet that closes Scene 1 of Act held some of the best singing of the night. The crowd gave him a rapturous curtain call on Friday night, Feb. 24 (and, I’m told, on Saturday night, Feb. 25, and Sunday afternoon, Feb. 26, as well). He needs to come back to this company in a major bass role (Boris Godunov, anyone?).

In the pit, conductor Will Crutchfield started off the opera far too slowly Friday night, and it took at least half an hour for the opera to find its stride and begin moving along. Newbury directed his troops ably, keeping plenty of action on the stage, and D.M. Wood’s lighting gave the whole piece a very evocative look, in particular a parade of Verona citizens walking across the bridge in silhouette. The fatal Mercutio-Romeo-Tybalt fight was imaginatively choreographed by Doug Scholz-Carlson, and Paul Carey’s costumes made everyone look terrific.

It seems to me a Romeo that could travel well to other companies, particularly smaller ones, and it should earn Newbury a return invitation.

• This weekend, the opera company presents its third and final work in its One Opera in One Hour series. It will be Florencia en el Amazonas, written in 1996 for Houston Grand Opera by the Mexican composer Daniel Catan, performed Friday, March 2, at the Harriet Himmel Theater in CityPlace, and Saturday evening, March 3, at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach.

Florencia is the story of an early-1900s boat journey on the Amazon River to the Brazilian city of Manaus, where Florencia Grimaldi, a famous opera singer, is determined to reunite with her lover Cristobal, a butterfly hunter. The One Opera in One Hour shows feature the troupe’s Young Artists, and are abridged versions of longer works, accompanied only by piano. Info: (561) 833-7888 or info@pbopera.org

Palm Beach Entertainment: Events, movies, restaurants, nightlife & more | pbpulse.com

In Twilight Breaking Dawn, Edward and Bella venture to Brazil to honeymoon on the isle of Esme, which doesn’t actually exist. Where they actually went was Paraty, Brazil, a colonial town and blossoming vacation retreat halfway in between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Specifically, they went to a beachfront house in Saco do Mamanguá, a tropical fjord, which even you too can rent.
New World Review

Outside Medellin’s MAMM (Museo de Arte Modern de Medellin) it begins to rain. First, a light rain. Then, a downpour. People are rushing across the brick plaza in front, ducking for cover anywhere they can. At Bonuar, the bar and restaurant on the side of the museum, patrons are arriving on the patio with a flurry, closing umbrellas and shaking the water off of their heads. One man takes off his jacket and reveals a t-shirt that asks “Que es arte?” I have been to Bonuar twice now and this sequence of events has happened both times. Well, most of it anyway.
New World Review

Joining a growing list of foreign chefs who have fallen in love with a Peruvian and followed them back to Peru (see Astrid Gutsche and Hervé Galidie) is Jason Nanka, an ecologically minded Australian chef, who recently opened a restaurant, Nanka, in the suburb of La Molina with his Peruvian wife.
New World Review

Bonnaroo has halted sales for the four-day music festival during the first day of ticket sales because of overwhelming demand and technical problems.

Tickets for the 2012 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival were scheduled to go on sale on Saturday, but the event’s organizers said on its website that they were suspending the ticket sales.

The statement said they were trying to fix the problem and would announce later when tickets would be available for the festival held annually in June in Manchester, about 65 miles southeast of Nashville.

This year’s lineup includes the reunited Beach Boys, along with Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phish and Bon Iver.

Palm Beach Entertainment: Events, movies, restaurants, nightlife & more | pbpulse.com

During a few weeks of travel in Trinidad and Guyana in late 2011, one song came on the radio again and again. It was soulful with a reggae beat. It was violent, tragic, and had an edge. It was the ballad of a murder occurring in Central station, sung with a West Caribbean accent. I googled some of the lyrics (Rum pa pa pum Rum pa pa pum Rum pa pa pum Man down) and it turns out it was by Rihanna, the Barbados born singer that has become a major pop star in the last few years. I thought I had discovered some great new reggae artist that no one would have heard of. I assumed the song was blowing up back in the states too, but when I came back that wasn’t the case. No one had ever heard of it and Man Down wasn’t getting play anywhere. It barely cracked the Billboard Top 100.
New World Review