While the one-man play at Riverside Theatre’s black box theater is thought-provoking, and the Vero Beach Opera’s Three Divas concert stirs the soul, the sure money on the largest crowd is the second annual Sexpot Show at Flametree Clay Gallery at the First Friday Gallery Stroll in downtown Vero.
Last year, 1,000 people (21 and over) filed into the gallery on 14th Avenue and slipped through a curtained door beneath a flashing red light. There, in a cramped back room, they found themselves surrounded by all manner of sex-themed three-dimensional art, from sweet little heart-shaped paperweights to graphically phallic wall hooks – some of them three abreast (if that’s even possible) and all of it for sale.
Not that the hand-wrought objects stirred more than the soul, though they did provoke more than thoughts – protesters threatened to disrupt the show, though they never materialized.
To alleviate congestion from parking, the county is providing a Go-line bus that will loop through the district from the parking lot across from Jetson’s appliance store.
And the girls-girls-girls theme continues Saturday when Vero Beach Opera presents the Three Divas concert. Soprano Susan Neves, who has performed at the Met and sang beautifully in Vero’s January production of Puccini’s “Il Tabarro” joins the winner of last year’s Giordani competition, mezzo soprano Megan Marino, along with Maria Aleida, who arrives fresh from her tour with Andrea Bocelli.
All three will be accompanied by the opera’s brilliant new musical director, Bruce Stasyna. The concert is at 7 p.m. at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center, known as the PAC. Tickets are $30, $40 and $50 and are available at www.verobeachopera.org.
Meanwhile, this Sunday afternoon, the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra adds Tulsa, OK, vocalist (and trumpeter) Jeff Shadley to its mostly Melbourne-based musicians in performing a program titled “An American Journey.” It’ll include tunes from the Great American Songbook: Gershwin, Sinatra, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and more. Advance tickets are $20 and available online at www.spacecoastsymphony.org.
Two world premieres being presented within reach of Vero Beach: Atlantic Classical Orchestra’s second concert of the season Thursday evening features an original work, “River of Doubt,” by Patrick Harlin, underwritten by the Rappaport Foundation.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Harlin is deeply moved by sound in nature. He is completing his dissertation at the University of Michigan on Acoustic Ecology and the Preservation of Sonic Landscapes. He is the recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is the inaugural winner of a residency through the Aspen Music Festival. He was also awarded a $10,000 stipend through the Presser Graduate Music Award.
Harlin is currently at work on a commission for a string quartet made up of members of the Detroit Symphony. Another work has been performed by the St. Louis Symphony.
Also on the program Thursday are works by Strauss, Schubert and Beethoven.
The concert in Vero is Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Waxlax Center at St. Edward’s School. The pre-concert lecture by artistic director and conductor Stewart Robertson, begins at 6:40 p.m. This is Robertson’s final season with ACO, we were very sad to learn last week (see story in News).
For those who are interested in hearing ACO in different venues (with different acoustics), the ACO also performs Tuesday in Palm Beach Gardens’ FAU Eissey Campus Theatre; and Friday at Stuart’s Lyric Theatre in afternoon and evening concerts. Check the ACO website for details: www.atlanticclassicalorchestra.com.
Later this month and further south, another trio of women – two wives and a mistress of the same man – take center stage at the Kravis Center as Palm Beach Opera mounts its first world premiere: “Enemies, A Love Story” based on a Yiddish novel by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer. Written by American composer Ben Moore – his first opera, with libretto by Nahma Sandro, the opera tells the story of Herman Broder, a Jewish intellectual and Holocaust survivor living in post-war New York. His comedic struggles to manage the women is set against the legacy of the Holocaust. A film adaptation of the novel starring Ron Silver, Angelica Huston and Lena Olin, was nominated for three Oscars.
The Palm Beach Opera has cast Daniel Okulitch in the role of Herman – he recently created the role of Willy Wonka in the new opera “The Golden Ticket.” Sam Helfrich directs, and David Stern of the Israel Opera is music director. The premiere takes place Feb. 20-22. Tickets are on sale at www.pbopera.org; or call 561-835-7575.
