Southern Florida offers an ideal winter getaway,
combining the celebrated Atlantic coastline of Miami Beach
– especially the uniquely preserved Art Deco architecture
of South Beach – and a burgeoning cultural scene stretching
from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. Inspired by our access to the
private old-world charm of The Surf Club, Great Performance
Tours has recently developed this new Tour to enjoy performances
of the Florida Grand Opera in its dazzling new home - the
state-of-the-art Miami Performing Arts Center designed by
architect Cesar Pelli. The expansive center contains the magnificent
Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, where we have
already encountered gratifying productions of ‘La Sonnambula’,
‘Manon Lescaut’, ‘The Pearl Fishers’,
and last season’s ‘La Cenerentola’. Due
to the unanimous enthusiasm of our Tour members, we are eager
to repeat our four-night program early in 2010, when we are
fortunate again to have secured our rooms at the private Surf
Club.
This
year our four performances will embrace the unusual variety
of the region’s cultural activities. First, a highlight
of the Florida Grand Opera’s season will be Gaetano
Donizetti’s ‘bel canto’ melodrama Lucia
di Lammermoor, featuring Cuban-born lyric coloratura Eglise
Gutierrez in the title role. Our second opera will take us
to the equally popular Palm Beach Opera, within comfortable
traveling distance of the Surf Club, where we will encounter
Giuseppe Verdi’s towering Shakespearean tragedy Otello
with Allan Glassman tenor as the Moor. The pairing of these
two productions will offer a plethora of Italianate melody
and an intriguing contrast between Donizetti’s mellifluous
lyricism and Verdi’s emotional power.
In
addition to the two landmark Italian operas. we have carefully
chosen our dates to coincide with an orchestral concert of
unusual interest. Miami Beach’s esteemed New World Symphony
will offer an intriguing all-Finnish program in their recently
renovated ‘art deco’ Lincoln Theatre. We are always
delighted to encounter this exceptional ensemble in the intimate
ambience of their beautiful home theatre. works of Saint-Saëns
and Mahler in Miami’s Knight Concert Hall – a
once-only program conducted by the Russian maestro Vladimir
Ashkenazy and showcasing the cult American violinist Joshua
Bell as soloist.
Our
fourth performance will take us to Fort Lauderdale’s
Broward Center for a performance by the wonderful Miami City
Ballet, acclaimed for its virtuosity under its longtime Founding
Artistic Director and choreographer Edward Villella. A program
of four diversified works will display the company’s
leading dancers in the choreography of George Balanchine and
Twyla Tharp.
Southern
Florida has recently emerged as a major alternative destination
for our discerning travelers who are eager to escape from
the winter doldrums of the north. Our compact 2010 program
offers the opportunity of discovering four distinguished venues
in downtown Miami, Palm Beach, South Beach and Ft. Lauderdale.
Because of a limited number of rooms at our unique private
club, we urge old and new friends to respond early to avoid
disappointment. We expect a sold-out Tour for this enticing
program in the warmth of Florida’s spectacular Atlantic
coast.
