If Dolly Levi is glowin’ and crowin’ in Riverside’s “Hello, Dolly!” the Vero Beach Opera deserves to crow a little too. It staged three Marcello Giordani International Vocal Competitions in the past three years. Sunday afternoon, we all have the chance to take another look at the talent that came out for those competitions. Three of the winners of the week-long events, and another from a competition in New York, are coming to Vero to give a concert they’re calling “Remember Me Then – See Me Now.”
Opera-goers may remember the names, especially those who were keeping tabs of their favorites on their programs: Viktor Antipenko is one I remember, not only for his melodious name but for his gorgeous voice. The Russian-born tenor came back to Vero a year ago to perform as Luigi in Puccini’s “Il Tabarro.” Since then, he’s sung in France, Russia and Brazil. He took third prize in the 2013 Giordani competition here.
Mezzo-soprano J’nai Bridges just finished a three-year residency at the Opera Center of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In December, she sang in “Bel Canto,” an opera by Jimmy Lopez based on the novel by Ann Patchett, and the first commission of the Lyric Opera in 11 years. Bridges took second place in Vero’s competition in 2015.
Baritone Jonathan Beyer, who was a finalist in the 2014 competition in Vero, has sung the role of Figaro for Opera Philadelphia, Opera Theater of St. Louis and Pittsburgh Opera. He sang Marcello in “La Boheme” in Dallas and this season with Boston Lyric Opera, and debuted at Florida Grand Opera as Guglielmo in “Cosi fan tutti.”
And soprano Jan Cornelius, a graduate of Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts (which supplied the roster for VBO’s last concert), won Giordani’s first competition in 2012, which took place in New York City. The Texas native most recently sang the role of Tatiana in “Eugene Onegin” with the Des Moines Metro Opera.
Saturday night, the First Couple of Vero’s summer fiddling camp, the now-wed Mike Block and Hanneke Cassel, are returning to Vero Beach as part of a Florida tour that includes Tampa and Gainesville. Block has been busy recording music for his upcoming album of American folk standards that’ll feature a roster of stars, including a few from the Vero camp’s faculty. This summer, along with the camp here, he’ll be playing in a cello ensemble with Yo-yo Ma at Symphony Hall in Chicago, and he’ll be directing Ma’s Global Music Project with guest artist Béla Fleck.
The concert this weekend is a chance to get a sense of why his Vero students are so wildly responsive. If the audience Saturday seems particularly riled up, it’s because Block and Cassel have been giving workshops in Vero’s public schools this week – all at no charge, just as Block has since 2009.
The concert in Vero is at First Presbyterian Church Saturday night. Admission is free, but donations to the Mike Block String Camp scholarship fund are taken at the door. The music starts at 7 p.m. in the church’s sanctuary, 512 Royal Palm Blvd.
And if you have kids attending the University of Florida, let them know that Block and Cassel are playing at Gainesville’s historic Thomas Center next Thursday – St. Patrick’s Day.
Here in Vero, we’ve got equally fitting music for St. Paddy’s – Ed Shanaphy and Friends are playing an all-Irish set from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Vero Beach Museum of Art’s Concert in the Park series. The concert takes place outside in the sculpture garden and typically draws a crowd of 200 or so.
And if you want to get even more homespun, Pat Donohue, a fixture on public radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” is coming to the Lyric Theatre in Stuart on St. Patrick’s Day. The Grammy Award-winning guitarist with the “Guys All-Star Shoe Band,” winner of a National Finger-picking Guitar Championship, performs at 7 p.m.
The Joffrey Ballet is making a stop on Saturday night at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. Apart from the Kennedy Center, where the company performed the Nutcracker in November, the Joffrey’s tour is limited to Florida, and only three cities – Naples, Sarasota and West Palm, all with tried and true audiences for ballet.
Closer to home – and yet so far away – the Bolshoi Ballet’s “Spartacus” plays at the Majestic Theatre Sunday afternoon. It’s a recording from 2013 of a ballet that has become a staple in the company’s repertoire, choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich in 1968. The ballet begins at 12:55. Tickets are only $20.
And the Vero Beach Theatre Guild offers affordable tickets for its big musical, “The King and I,” which runs through March 20. Even more affordable is Henegar Center’s Gershwin-filled, goofball musical comedy “Nice Work if You Can Get It.” It’s a great way to anchor an evening along New Haven Avenue in Melbourne, where there’s a string of lively bars and restaurants – last week, Vero’s favorite flamenco guitarist Don Soledad was playing on the terrace at Matt’s Casbah.
