Art: Tomorrow, the Society of the Four Arts opens a new exhibit that takes its art viewers into the world of the Old West. Recapturing the Real West: The Collections of William I. Koch includes about 500 items, most of which have not been seen but have been loaned to the society by Koch, the industrialist, sailing champion and founder of Oxbow Energy Group.

The collection includes the only known image of Billy the Kid, paintings by Charles Russell and Frederic Remington, a daguerreotype of Annie Oakley, plus sculpture, clothing and other artifacts from the American West. The exhibit, divided into historical sections, also will feature about 150 historic guns from the period. Tickets are $5; gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Call 655-7226 or visit www.fourarts.org.

Film: Having just gone through the political overload of the Florida presidential primary, it is worth being reminded that we are not the only country in the world whose election process is messy. Consider the similar squabbling in France, as depicted in The Conquest, the slightly fictionalized for legalities’ sake tale of the rise to power of diminutive Nicolas Sarkozy. It watches as he assumes the presidency against considerable odds, losing his wife and his top aide along the way. Veteran French actor Denis Podalydes is very persuasive as Sarkozy -- at least from our distant vantage point -- guided by the workmanlike direction of co-screenwriter Xavier Durringer. Ultimately, the film does not really take sides about the man, but it comes down hard against the political system around which he maneuvered. Opening today at Mos’Art Theatre in Lake Park.

Theater: This Tuesday evening, Lou Tyrrell of the late, lamented Florida Stage unveils his new stage venture, The Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach, which hopes to continue his focus on new American plays. For openers, Tyrrell is launching a Master Playwright Series. Yes, it sounds like a program that Palm Beach Dramaworks has, but the difference is Tyrrell has the clout and connections to bring the playwrights here to participate. On Tuesday, Israel Horovitz oversee a reading of his 1974 play Line, an absurdist one-act play that has become the longest-running stage piece in New York history. The cast includes Ken Kay, Kim Cozort, John Felix, Todd Allen Durkin and Ryan Didato, with the stage directions read by Horovitz.

On subsequent Tuesdays in February, the series will host John Pielmeier, William Mastrosimone and John Guare. Tickets are $15-$20 in advance, or $48-$64 for the four-reading series. For reservations, call (561) 450-6357.

Music: Elmar Oliveira is the only American violinist ever to win the gold medal at Russia’s Tchaikovsky Competition, and he was the first recipient (in 1983) of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. His recent recordings include concertos by Bach, Benjamin Lees and Ernst Bloch, and he’s also busy as a teacher at Lynn University.

This weekend, he appears in recital with the pianist Tao Lin in a program that includes the Violin Sonata of the sadly short-lived Belgian composer Guillaume Lekeu, who died in 1894 of typhoid fever, one day after his 24^th birthday. Also on the program is the bubbly Sonata No. 8 (in G, Op. 30) of Beethoven, and Ravel’s Gypsy showpiece, Tzigane.

The recital will take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Wold Performing Arts Center on the Lynn campus. Tickets range from $20 to $35. Call 237-9000 or visit www.lynn.edu/tickets.

Greek-born violinist Areta Zhulla is now a resident of Indianapolis, where her husband plays bassoon in the symphony, but she’s steadily making her mark in New York, where she’s been a protégé of Itzhak Perlman for the past 10 years.

Zhulla, now 25, will appear with the Boca Raton Symphonia on Saturday and Sunday in the Violin Concerto (Op. 14) of Samuel Barber, one of the classics of American symphonic writing no less than a staple of the world repertory. Two conductors will handle the orchestra: Duilio Dobrin on Saturday night, and Ramon Tebar on Sunday afternoon. The program also includes the first of Haydn’s symphonies (No. 1 in D, Hob: I:1), and the second of Beethoven’s (No. 2, in D, Op. 36).

Saturday’s concert is set for 8 p.m. at the Pine Crest School in Boca Raton, and Sunday’s for 3 p.m. at the Roberts Theater on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in Boca. Tickets range fromn $35-$62. Call 376-3848 or visit www.bocasymphonia.org.

With so many musicals these days based on popular movies, it is hardly normal to encounter a show based on an original story, let alone the dramatic tale of a family mired in the grip of a member’s bipolar mental disorder.

Call it instead Next to Normal, the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical from the talented new songwriting team of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. While they are mindful of the basic tenets of musical theater, there is little that is traditional about this gut-wrenching, emotionally jolting show that places the audience in the middle of a troubled family dynamic.

And while Actors’ Playhouse and its artistic director David Arisco produce traditional large-scale musicals such as Hairspray or Les Miserables very well, the company’s creative juices seem particularly stimulated when it leaves the mainstream. Think of Floyd Collins, Violet or Songs For a New World and add to them what is perhaps a new qualitative high for all concerned, Next to Normal.

Quick, what rhymes with “electro-convulsive therapy”? Yorkey’s lyrics dip into medical jargon, but at their core they sing about the human struggle for connection and that societal standard we deem normalcy. And if, because of a chemical or pharmacological imbalance, normalcy is not an option, the next best thing will do.

Certainly suburban housewife and mother Diana Goodman seems unable to cope with daily life, as the show’s ironic opening number, Just Another Day, puts it. In fact, Diana’s manic-depressive responses to everyday chores are taking a toll on her family -- her caring, but clueless architect husband Dan, her neglected teenage daughter Natalie and her son Gabe, who may just be the root cause of Diana’s mental instability.

Much of the show’s plot concerns the efforts to find an answer for Diana’s dilemma, through the doctors who prescribe various mood-numbing drugs and, eventually, shock treatment. No, Next to Normal is not geared to the escapism entertainment crowd, but it is riveting theater, with its emotional impact only heightened by the musical through line.

The vocal demands of Kitt’s rock music and the acting demands of Yorkey’s script call for exceptionally skilled performers, and director Arisco has them. Even those who have enjoyed Jodie Langel as Eva Peron in Evita and the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre may be surprised by the polar opposites of fragility and power she brings to Diana. She conveys such heart-breaking mental confusion amid some full-throttle arias. It was an award-winning role on Broadway and could well be so again here.

Nor is there a weak link in the supporting cast, led by Eddy Rioseco’s rock star-like Gabe, explosively prowling the stage with I’m Alive. Sarah Amengual is more subdued as Natalie, but she too makes the most of a spotlight number (Superboy and the Invisible Girl). Mark Sanders (husband Dan) is the production’s anchor of sanity, Ben Liebert impresses as the boy friend Natalie keeps pushing away and Nick Duckart is deliciously subversive as the various doctors on Diana’s case.

Musical director Eric Alsford reportedly championed the show choice, and he leads the six-piece band with gusto. Because the score is probably unfamiliar to most of the audience and the rock sound calls for much amplification, perhaps the show’s most crucial support comes from sound designer Alexander Herrin, who has managed an aural balance that keeps the lyrics clear and vibrant.

Although its production requirements are considerable, Next to Normal will be done a great deal at regional theaters around the country this year. It is hard to believe that many of them will be as memorable as the current show at Actors’ Playhouse.

NEXT TO NORMAL, Actors’ Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. Through Sunday, Feb. 12. Tickets: $40-$48. Call: (305) 444-9293.

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Donald Margulies was not new on the theater scene in 2000 when he won the Pulitzer Prize for Dinner with Friends, but if the committee had only waited five more years, I suspect they would have recommended him instead for the superior Brooklyn Boy. This semi-autobiographical play looks at the American grasp for success and the toll it takes on a novelist who exploits his geographic and ethnic roots, which he had long turned away from in his private life.

The script is a worthy choice to inaugurate Parade Productions, a promising new troupe that performs at the Studio at Mizner Park, a no-frills space carved out of the second floor of the former International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton. It suggests the good taste of artistic director Kim St. Leon and her dedication to entertaining works of substance, even if the production is somewhat erratic in its casting.

Certainly it is solid in its central role, novelist Eric Weiss -- Ricky to his old friends back in Brooklyn -- played by area favorite Avi Hoffman in one of his best performances in memory. Weiss, a self-loathing Jew, has turned his back on his religion, is impatient with his father who lies dying of cancer in a Brooklyn hospital and pays attention to his shiksa wife Nina only when she demands a divorce from him. In short, Eric is not particularly endearing, but Hoffman manages to earn some audience empathy for him with his own natural likeability.

It is after a visit to the hospital, with his new best-selling book -- also titled Brooklyn Boy -- in hand, eager for father’s approval, that Eric confronts his past. In the hospital cafeteria, he encounters a childhood friend, Ira Zimmer (the engaging, ethnically authentic Michael Gioia), who becomes annoyed at Eric’s condescending attitude about his native borough, but flattered that he inspired a minor character in the novel.

Ira will return for the moving conclusion of the second act, but before he does, Margulies sends Eric off on book tour to Los Angeles, where he is a stranger in a strange land fending off a young, attractive groupie in his hotel room. And later, it a scene that is too broad and obvious, he takes a meeting about a movie adaptation of his novel and learns how crass Hollywood can be. Director St. Leon should have guided her actors to play against the comedy instead of taking a sitcom approach, but Brooklyn Boy still snaps back with an impact as Margulies and Eric return to firmer ground on the East Coast.

Credit Parade Productions with the smarts to hire scenic designer Sean McClelland, who comes up with a multi-location unit dominated by the Brooklyn Bridge. It is a visual reminder that no matter where he goes, Eric remains under the gravitational pull of his hometown.

Overall, the evening is uneven, but the play’s strengths are sufficient to overcome such weaknesses. Parade is a welcome addition to the theatrical landscape, though it has announced a cautious approach to establishing itself, with its next production expected a year from now.

BROOKLYN BOY, Parade Productions at The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. Through Sunday, Feb. 12. Tickets: $30. Available at: www.paradeproductions.org.

Editor’s note: Here are late reviews from recent concerts:

Cleveland Orchestra (Jan. 25, Kravis Center)

Slowly and surely since his death in 1975, the music of Dmitri Shostakovich has established itself as a vital and permanent part of the canon, with music from almost every genre in his output – with perhaps the exception of operetta and film scores – getting regular hearings and recordings.

At the time of the “old” New Grove Dictionary, in 1980, the prediction as expressed there was that Shostakovich’s symphonies would be the standard-bearers of his work. But that has not quite turned out to be the case. While the First, Fifth, Ninth and Tenth symphonies are regularly heard, the rest of them are harder to find on concert programs, and it’s been in concerti and chamber music most of all that Shostakovich has become a familiar concert face.

String quartets play all 15 of his quartets, as well as doing complete cycles, and works such as the piano trios and the quintet, the cellos and viola sonatas, plus his great cycle of preludes and fugues for solo piano, pop up everywhere. The first of his two violin, cello and piano concertos are standard fare these days, too, with perhaps the Second Piano Concerto, written for his son Maxim, coming into its own.

The Seventh, Eighth and Fifteenth symphonies should be programmed much more often, but the others present problems of one kind or another that make them harder to do. With the Sixth Symphony, though, no such problems (i.e., choruses, vocal soloists, instrumentation) exist, which leaves the work’s fate up to advocacy.

In Franz Welser-Möst, the artistic director of the Cleveland Orchestra, the Sixth has found a champion, and in the orchestra’s beautiful, muscular reading of this work Jan. 25 at the Kravis Center, audiences learned why they should know this piece much better.

The Sixth is tough to grasp because it starts with a long slow movement and is followed by two fast ones, which goes against the grain of the usual fast-slow-fast symphonic arc. Leaving aside the question of why that arc should still be with us, the music itself actually comes off as a return to vigor after a time of sadness, or perhaps a slow rising from the floor of a boxing ring.

Welser-Möst led his charges, in town for a runout on their annual Miami residency, through a most persuasive account of the work, beginning with an opening theme in the lower strings that was straightforward and sober, not overwrought, which is good wood for building. There was distinguished playing from each of the instrumental soloists that play such an important part of the sonic landscape at the end, and careful attention paid to the trill-and-suffix that runs throughout, with different shades of meaning brought to it each time.

The second movement Scherzo had a welcome lightness that contrasted well with the drawn-out agony of the first. Welser-Möst wisely avoided the temptation to stress the sardonic aspects of the music and kept it lilting, so that the final scales in the upper winds evaporated rather than parked on an upper level.

And the finale is a barn-burner, one orchestras should look forward to doing. Again there was a basic lightness of approach, and quite a fast pace, that made the music more exciting, more fun. Concertmaster William Preucil’s midway solo was right in keeping with the spirit of the proceedings, and the climactic closing bars, full of brass and percussion, came as a joyful explosion after the orchestra had worked up a tremendous head of steam.

The Shostakovich ended the concert, which began with a performance by the Russian-born pianist Yefim Bronfman of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 (in B-flat, Op. 83), and was followed by a new work, American composer Sean Shepherd’s Wanderlust, a three-part tone poem.

The Shepherd work, which evokes the young composer’s Nevada home, the British town of Aldeburgh (and its most famous resident, Benjamin Britten), and the Gehry museum at Bilbao, Spain, is distinctive primarily for its explicit colors. Shepherd is a composer with a good feeling for them, and in the first movement (Prevailing Winds), there is a good deal of high flute and piccolo sound-wash contrasted with brass groupings, all of it creating a mood of dust and wind.

The second movement, Seagulls on High, is even more atmospheric, with a soft wind chord heard early that anchors the outbursts of instrumental extravagance throughout. The third, Bilbao, has a repeated three-note motif running through it that was played by the violas with a deliberately mechanical, impassive regularity.

This music’s interest lies primarily in the skill with which the various color bursts are scored. For all the volume that he calls for in parts of the piece, overall it is gentle and delicate, and he tends to score with a Debussy/Ravel-style sense of instrumentation, one with plenty of air beneath it and in its spaces. Brasses, for example, tend to be used as big, soft supports for the strings and the winds, not as mighty deliverers of chorales or bombast.

The concert opened with the Brahms concerto and Bronfman, one of its frequent practitioners. Bronfman has specialized in big-fisted repertoire such as this work and the Rachmaninov Third, and he was able to supply much in the way of massive sound at the concert.

The performance as a whole had something of a lumbering quality about it. The second movement was taken at a pokey tempo, and when the strings entered with their downward line, they did so demurely, rather than with strength and drama, and it took Bronfman to show them the aggressive way to play it at the end of the movement, when the roles were reversed.

The horn solo in the first movement and the cello solo in the third were entirely beautiful, and soloist and orchestra meshed lovingly, with Bronfman perhaps coming in a little bit ahead at the ends of the movements, particularly at the end. But while his playing was not entirely spotless, it had grandeur and weight, which is perfectly suitable for this music. – Greg Stepanich

Euclid Quartet (Jan. 24, Flagler Museum)

The four young men from four corners of the world who make up the Euclid Quartet proved Jan. 24 that music is indeed the language that breaks down barriers and cultural differences.

The Euclids played their hearts out for the full house attending their concert at the Flagler Museum, a go-to venue for quality musicianship of this kind in Palm Beach. The setting alone, a fine neo-baronial hall built by the great railway mogul Henry Flagler, is worth the experience. Upon entering, one gets a sense of the Gilded Age in America. And your ticket includes champagne and hors d’oeuvres served after the concert while you have a chance to meet the artists, which continues the exceptionally high quality.

Why Euclid? Because, explained John Blades, executive director of the Flagler, Euclid Avenue in Cleveland is where quartet was formed. It is a center for culture and, coincidentally, the place John D. Rockefeller and his company secretary, Henry Flagler, made their fortunes in oil. Flagler used his money to build railroads to Florida. A billion Flagler dollars, dispersed among various trusts in America, yields $50 million for the arts and similar activities annually, Blades said.

Winners of the prestigious Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the Euclids are based at Indiana University-South Bend. They opened their program with Haydn’s Quartet No. 54 (in B-flat, Op. 71, No. 1), written in 1793.

It begins with thickly textured chords, played vigorously by the Euclid. They have a beautiful tone which was made to sound even more lovely by the live acoustic of this hall, most suitable for chamber groups. Their fresh attack and quality put me in mind of the Emerson, whom I heard in December. The cello seemed too dominant at first, but cellist Si-Yan Darren Li, sensitive to the others, adjusted his level of playing and blended in perfectly.

The second-movement Adagio has an underlying cello accompaniment at its center that Li played beautifully. In the minuet, the music danced along; violist Luis Vargas, dancing on his seat, looked as though he was about to burst into song. A fine balance of all four instruments was achieved here. The final movement, Vivace, was taken very fast. It displays exuberant syncopations and a drone-like bass. The quiet, surprise ending had nobody fooled in this audience, who recognized first-class musicianship with warm applause.

Puccini’s short composition, Cristantemi (Chrysanthemums), followed. It was written when Puccini learned of the death of Amadeo I, the former king of Spain, in 1890. He seldom wrote pieces for string quartets, but was obviously moved to do so here, writing it in one night. It echoes the French impressionist style of Debussy. The Euclid played it exquisitely.

Grieg’s First String Quartet (in G minor, Op. 27) ended the program. Based on a poem of Ibsen’s, The Minstrel, it’s the tale of disappointment in love, which may have had some significance to the composer, who was obsessed by this theme during composition.

The first movement is quasi-orchestral in it scoring, with hints of the composer’s Piano Concerto, Wedding at Troldhaugen and Peer Gynt. The second movement is almost song-like, with some excellent high notes played on the first violin by Jameson Cooper. There’s a longing Grieg manages to convey here that digs into the human psyche. The third movement, a brief Intermezzo, has enormous charm. The first and second violins play a melody over plucked strings on the cello and viola. Second violinist Jacob Murphy is the consummate teammate for Cooper, reliable and steady in all his playing.

The melody finds nowhere to go and ends up in the rhythm of a halling, the Norwegian folk dance played in turn by each instrument. It’s catchy and fun, and familiar. For some reason best known to Grieg, the last movement shifts from the fjords and waterfalls to Italy for his finale, a tarantella. But the longing returns in the last few bars and we are back in Grieg’s homeland.

This foursome reminded me not just of the Emerson but the Tokyo String Quartet, and it might be that they deserve to rank in that august company. The Grieg quartet, in any case, received a brilliant reading, and was met by a well-deserved standing ovation.

We were, after all, in the presence of great artistry. – Rex Hearn

Palm Beach Opera 50^th Anniversary Gala (Jan. 20, Kravis Center)

Anniversary celebrations of opera companies can be awkward and inward-looking. What is there to do but sing? I’ve attended many such occasions. Some were boring, some too long. And quite a few, full of self-centered pats on the back.

It was not so at Palm Beach Opera’s Golden Jubilee on Jan. 20 (the concert was repeated Jan. 22). Packed houses in the Kravis Center were treated to five opera scenes in two hours, and short, sharp, precise comments on the history of the company. Written by its general director and co-host, the suave Daniel Biaggi, his was a polished performance, exuding all the confidence needed to face the next 50 years.

A lot of planning and rehearsing went into this important event, and it ran smoothly. The opera stars were stellar, and in top vocal form, as was Bruno Aprea, the artistic director and conductor. This celebration, including the sets, was underwritten by Helen Persson’s gift of $1 million. Angels like Persson are few. Her generosity is a living example to today’s rich young computer barons.

The Googles, Facebooks, Amazons, Apples and such must repeat what the Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Ford and Rockefeller fortunes did for the arts in America’s 19^th and 20^th centuries. Which young wizards will step up to take the lead, show they know their civic duty, and be remembered as the greatest artistic philanthropist of the 21st century?

The retired baritone Sherill Milnes, the other co-host, spoke of his 40 years in opera and

had a funny story about singing his first Germont as a young man. He had to arrive early to disguise himself as an older man with makeup. As he grew older, all he eventually needed was 10 minutes because his natural looks took over.

Selections from Verdi’s La Traviata opened the event. Soprano Sarah Joy Miller sang a delightful Sempre libera, with all the tough high notes and trills intact. Her voice could use some more focus, but she gave the evening a thrilling start.

Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus followed: Lauren McNeese, mezzo, was a convincing Prince Orlofsky, a pants role. And the wonderful soprano Ruth Ann Swenson gave us a glorious Czardas.

Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan and Swenson as Rodolfo and Mimi, respectively, gave a lovely performance of the famous love duet from Act I of Puccini’s La Bohème. Ayan’s tenor was perfect for Che gelida manina, and their two voices blended beautifully as they walked offstage.

The highest points came for me in the extracts from Bizet’s Carmen. Denyce Graves-Montgomery was smashing in the Habanera. Her full-throated mezzo sound is beautiful, rich and unique.

Even better was the clash between Graves-Montgomery and tenor Brandon Jovanovich in the Act IV excerpt that came next. Carmen refuses Don Jose’s love, and he stabs her to death. Jovanovich was convincing and brilliant in his vocal delivery of this stressful, wide-ranging piece. These two fine artists were met with rapturous applause, again and again.

What better work than the Grand Finale from Act II of Verdi’s Aida to end the program? Soprano Angela Brown was magnificent as Aida, and the choristers of the Palm Beach Opera were superb in this and their support of all the other scenes. Bravo to them, and to chorus master Greg Ritchey.

Stage director Dona Vaughn made the whole event run slickly, in the best sense of that word. This was an anniversary concert that will stay in the memory for a long time to come. And after all that, the best thing to say is: Here’s to the next 50 years. – R. Hearn

Edward Villella is getting a tremendous sendoff as he eases out of his role as artistic director of the Miami City Ballet, the company he founded 26 years ago.

And the rest of us? We get to revel in his company’s brilliant success.

A packed house Saturday at the Kravis Center was treated to one of the world-premiere performances of Viscera, a piece created especially for the company by Liam Scarlett, a 25-year-old choreographing sensation from England’s Royal Ballet.

And what a great work it is. Villella, who commissioned it, may have discovered another Balanchine, Ashton or MacMillan.

Scarlett chose the First Piano Concerto of the contemporary American composer Lowell Liebermann for his music, and it’s an excellent choice. From the start, the dance captivates. What we see are beautiful, athletic bodies ready to dance. The women’s costumes were backless one-piece “swim” suits in hues of plum, red and navy. The men wore deep plum T-shirts and very short, tight-fitting boxer briefs of the same color.

The effect was to show off the lovely legs and backs of the women and the men’s muscular soccer-player thighs. Every costume was designed by the young choreographer for the look of fitness and ease of movement.

Viscera uses the dancers well. Its subtle changes in the makeup of each group are intriguing: first, two men, then three women, the corps, then a series of solos danced by the bubbly, energetic Jeanette Delgado. Scarlett’s work has all the elements of classical ballet with nods to the modernism what’s now known as the Rambert Dance Company and the like, and reflects what he himself called the “energy, passion, musicality and radiance’’ of Miami City Ballet.

It was the grouping of dancers that I found fresh and original. In many drills the corps de ballet dance with their backs to the audience, repeating flowing arm movements, exposing shoulder blades as they expand and contract. The drama is enhanced when they slowly face the audience. The dancers enjoyed every second of this piece, created especially for them.

The teaming of Delgado as Scarlett’s prima ballerina may have begun a fine pairing tradition; she performed his steps with exemplary technique. Pianist Francisco Renno and the orchestra, led by Gary Sheldon, were excellent.

After the Scarlett came Jerome Robbins’ In The Night. Three couples, the first pair dreamy and innocent; the second, more mature; the third, stormy and combative, enter and dance separately. At the end they waltz on to the stage together, meet and make friends. Using four Chopin nocturnes (night pieces), Robbins has created some clever choreography, with perhaps a few too many lifts. The overall feeling is clear insight into the lives of others through dance.

The first couple, Tricia Albertson and Didier Bramaz, was poetry in motion. The second couple, Cellie Manning and Isanusi Garcia-Rodriguez, was light as a feather, gliding along steadily. The third couple, Katia Carranza and Yann Trividic, was fun personified. Pianist Renno was again brilliant in his playing of the Chopin nocturnes.

Ballet Imperial, Balanchine’s tribute to Marius Petipa, father of classical ballet, ended the evening. Set to Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto, Renno and the 50-strong orchestra under Sheldon played beautifully once again.

This ballet recreates the time of Russia under the czars, when cities and even small townships had their own dance companies. It has no plot. The intricate line work of the corps de ballet takes shape in many different patterns, and combinations of patterns, that are the stamp and genius of the great Balanchine’s choreography.

Once more the delightful Jeanette Delgado, partnered by Reyneris Reyes, executed a most tricky pas de deux with skill and precision. She reminds one of the young Alicia Markova, bubbling over with the joy of life shown in her dancing. Reyes was the epitome of majesty; his solos were wonderful.

The trio of Tricia Albertson, Renan Cerdeiro and Didier Bramaz were the embodiment of sweetness and light. Albertson is so ethereal, reminding me of the late Merle Park in her quiet beauty. Costumes were white, white, white. And the dazzling tiaras, designed by Maria Morales -- these are czarinas, not peasants -- were magnificent, and even stayed in place.

The finale employs principals and the corps de ballet in an amazing display of leaps, interchanges, entrechats and line work. It dazzled and awed as you studied the total beauty of the ensemble on stage.

This was a memorable night of dance indeed, and Liam Scarlett is a great find.

Rex Hearn founded the Berkshire Opera Company and has covered classical music, dance and opera in South Florida since 1995.

Editor’s note: Here are late reviews from three concerts held earlier this month.

Adaskin String Trio (Jan. 10, Flagler Museum)

The Adaskin String Trio did something at its Flagler Museum concert that only the better chamber groups do: Play unusual, rarely heard material with the same kind of commitment they expend on the standards.

In its program Feb. 10 at the Flagler, which opened the five-concert series at the Whitehall mansion, the Canadian threesome presented a classic work of Beethoven with lesser-known pieces by Haydn, Ernst von Dohnanyi and Miklos Rozsa. The member seemed to greatly enjoy the resonant acoustic of the Flagler, which helped amplify and fill out their sound.

The Adaskin also played each of the works with bigness and power predominant, opening with the String Trio No. 4 (in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3) of Beethoven. This is a terrific early Beethoven piece, and in his favorite dramatic key; the Adaskins stressed its high emotional temperature right off the bat by playing its opening four-note gambit with enormity and sweep, then moving on with a brisk, almost breathless tempo (and taking the repeats as well).

After clearing up some intonation difficulties, the Adaskins – violinist Emlyn Ngai, violist Steve Larson and cellist Mark Fraser -- followed the first movement with an equally intense slow movement, in which attention to detail was clear, with nice touches such as the super-soft three-note tag that closes the main theme; in addition to its remarkable quiet, it also had a bell-like tonal quality, almost like chimes.

The Scherzo was huge, forceful and exciting, and beautifully played, though the C major moments could have used a lighter touch and a greater sense of contrast. The trio closed with a muscular, exuberant finale, played with a good feel for Beethoven’s rough-and-ready wit. All three members worked together most admirably in what is after a more intimate unit than a quartet, and more exposed at that.

For the Hadyn Baryton Trio No. 65 in G (Hob. XI: 65), played here in string trio transcription (though it would be lovely to hear the baryton itself one day), is one of many delightful such pieces Haydn wrote for Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, and it’s a shame this music isn’t better-known. While clearly written for an ensemble of limited compass, it’s wonderfully companionable music, with a primary-colors kind of feel that the Adaskins did a good job of bringing across.

In the second-movement Minuet, for example, the trio played with a graceful kind of lilt that linked it strongly to rustic sources, and in the finale, made the most of the work’s intrinsic charm. Overall, though, this was a strong, forthright reading of the piece, with no sense of lace or fragile china.

The Op. 1 of Miklos Rozsa, a Czech composer who went on to write film scores such as Ben-Hur, is a Serenade for string trio, written when Rozsa was just out of his teens. It is a fine score, idiomatically written for the ensemble and rich with folk color, as well as a touch of the salon.

Cellist Fraser was particularly fine here, in the secondary theme of the first movement, and in the third movement, when he echoed the beautiful, elegiac tune introduced lovingly by Ngai. The second movement, with its big Viennese-style swoop at the end of the main theme, has a slight touch of schmaltz, and the Adaskins indulged it just enough to make it beguile.

The finale had little of the brittleness to be heard on one of the available recordings of the piece, with the trio aiming for something more Haydnesque, bumptious and jolly rather than prickly. This was a very fine performance of this excellent work, and it’s hard to see how it could have received more persuasive advocacy.

The concert closed with the Serenade in C, Op. 10, of Dohnanyi, written in 1902, decades before the Hungarian composer would come to the United States, where he taught for years at Florida State University. The march that opens this five-movement work was played with a bright, crisp, highly accented approach that embodied youthful energy.

Violist Larson played the primary theme of the second-movement Romanza with great tenderness above the pizzicati in violin and cello, followed by Ngai leading the passionate middle section with plenty of sweep. The Adaskins took the third movement fugue very rapidly, which paid nice dividends when all three instruments took the theme in unison; meanwhile, the D major contrasting section had a firmly Brahmsian touch.

The fourth movement Theme and Variations was one of the high points of the performance, with its moody minor-key theme laid out in its introduction and its subsequent guises with exquisite care. The second variation, reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, and the third, again recalling Brahms, led ultimately to the fifth variation, a gorgeous transformation of the theme with slow-moving chords and a poignant cello answer.

The high-spirited Rondo finale was, like much of this concert, played with bigness and drive, and made a most exciting ending, especially as the themes from the other movements were brought in at the end.

The trio played a short encore, an arrangement of Hobo’s Blues, which Paul Simon wrote in 1970 with the great jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. It had the fizzy flavor of 1930s le jazz hot, and was an attractive way to end this fine and revelatory concert.

Hye-Jin Kim (Jan. 9, Rinker Playhouse)

The South Korean-born violinist Hye-Jin Kim made a strong case for the music of Sibelius in her appearance Jan. 9 in the Kravis Center’s Young Artists series, which marked her Florida debut.

Sibelius, himself an occasional violinist, wrote a good deal of occasional music during his life, some of it salonistic but most of it less so, and Kim performed good service by including three of the Op. 81 pieces on her program. The three works she played at the Rinker Playhouse with the able pianist Amy Yang – Mazurka, Rondino and Valse – are preferable to many of the encore pieces violinists will seek out, such as those by Kreisler or Piazzolla.

The Sibelius pieces have a close kinship with Kreisler, but they have some beautiful textural detail, such as the folk-style piano strumming in the Rondino and the sweet coolness of the minor-key variant of the main Valse theme. Kim played these pieces winningly, and she obviously enjoyed doing so.

Kim, who trained at the Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory, now teaches at East Carolina University. She is a violinist of sure and broad technique, perhaps a shade on the cautious side amid her excellent musicianship; there were several moments in the recital where some liberty would have been quite welcome.

The late and only Sonata of Leos Janacek, for example, is a piece of unrelenting, if lovable, strangeness, redolent with ostinati and little shards of melody plus odd violin effects. Kim was most persuasive here in the second movement (Ballade), which she presented with a haunted tone that suited the music beautifully. But the sonata overall needed a bit more of its jagged drama, some more attention to the quirkiness that makes it so distinctive.

Kim’s reading of the opening work on the program, Schubert’s Sonatina No. 2 (in A minor, D. 385), demonstrated the expert, polished approach she brought to all the pieces. A modest piece in structure, Kim played it with precision and clarity, but also a reserved Classical-style tone that suited its Hausmusik aims. She played the gentle theme of the second-movement Andante with surpassing loveliness, and the third-movement Minuet with a strong sense of rhythm. Yang was a good partner throughout.

The violinist also tackled the rarely heard Aus der Heimat, a late work (1880) by Smetana, and a sonatina in all but name. As in much of Smetana, the piano part is big and virtuosic, and Yang did a commendable job of not overwhelming Kim at peak moments. Kim has a strong sense of the emotionalism of the slow movement, which she played quite well, and of the kind of pacing that has to be brought to the last movement, which builds to a bravura climax.

The early Sonata (in E-flat, Op. 18) of Richard Strauss closed the program proper. Full of presentiments of tone poems such as Don Juan, it’s a large and showy work, and Kim answered the challenge with a much greater feeling of intensity and power. Her technical prowess was impressive here, but the music could have benefited from a touch of rubato at places such as the peak of the recap in the first movement, where the briefest slowing of the tempo at the climax would have helped really bring the message home.

The same goes for the finale: a little more warmth in the climactic moments, and we get the full measure of Strauss’ particular brand of Romanticism. But in general this was a big-hearted version of this sonata, and the appreciative house at the Rinker welcomed it.

For an encore, Kim chose one of the most familiar of all violin virtuoso chestnuts, the Zigeunerweisen (Op. 20) of Sarasate. And here the audience heard a different side of Kim, even to the point of a very different sound quality. This was all fireworks, all the time, and Kim played it with marvelous accuracy, perfectly drilled runs and a sizable helping of all-out show biz.

Semele (Opera in One Hour, Palm Beach Opera, CityPlace, Jan. 6)

Normally, I wouldn’t write about the One Opera in One Hour series at the Palm Beach Opera in a critical review because it’s usually an experimental one-off for the Young Artists troupe, and you can’t hold these productions to the same standard as the mainstage shows.

But the series is growing, and the Jan. 6 abridged version of Handel’s Semele, which encored Jan. 8 at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach, prompted a few thoughts I don’t see any reason not to share.

The good news is that in Canadian soprano Emily Duncan-Brown, the company found a winning Semele. She sang her biggest set piece, Endless Pleasure, Endless Love, with a big, easeful voice; her Handelian melismas never sounded strained, but a natural outgrowth of her characterization. And she acted well: She was sexy, warm and believably impetuous.

There was good supporting work, too, from mezzo and fellow Canadian Shirin Eskandani, who sang Juno with clear diction and a pretty, mature voice. American soprano Alexandra Rafalo was a decent Iris as well, although she had a couple intonation problems at the end of There, From Mortal Cares Retiring. But hers is a voice with an unusual, dusky tone quality that’s very attractive.

Benjamin Clements sang admirably as Cadmus, as did Kenneth Stavert as Apollo, but while Jesse Enderle was funny and musically adept as Somnus, his gentle voice was underpowered, and pianist Bruce Stasyna dialed his playing way back to accommodate it.

The bad news is that this workshop production was so minimalist as to be basically unstaged. This is a series that has offered delightful, offbeat ideas like a Cosi fan Tutte set amid workers in a Starbucks, and an Orfeo ed Euridice whose opening scene was at an arthouse cinema showing Chaplin’s Modern Times. But Andrew Nienaber did almost nothing here except clothe his singers in contemporary evening wear, play around with some blocks on a stage -- with dangerous, open holes in it -- and try to let the story take shape from there.

The worst offense here is that the abridgement was bafflingly odd, so odd that the best-known piece in the opera, Jupiter’s Where’er You Walk, was cut, which is unforgivable. Also gone was Myself I Shall Adore, which is just as unforgivable, especially because Duncan-Brown would have done it well. In place was lots of recitative, apparently in the belief that the story needed a lot of exposition.

In a situation like this, though, the best way to handle all that Handel is to do it some other way, say, with the supertitles over transition music, or perhaps a supernumerary holding signs while wearing a costume befitting the director’s concept (except that there was no concept). The point is that with a little bit of creativity, a way could be found to leave the opera’s most well-known music in the production and still get the whole story across in a third of the normal playing time.

This Semele also had a problematic Jupiter. Mexican tenor Evanivaldo Correa made a stiff king of the Gods indeed, grabbing Duncan-Brown as if he were trying to seize the last box of chocolate fudge Pop-Tarts in a BOGO promotion rather than a luscious mortal who’s made him forget he’s married. More importantly, his voice sounded strained and uncomfortable, particularly in the vocal runs. He could use some guidance on loosening up his instrument, because at its best, it’s got a very pleasant quality, as he showed in last season’s workshop reading of the zarzuela Luisa Fernanda.

And finally, it’s past time for these productions to be done with piano only. A recital program, yes, but not a mini-opera, especially when technology offers so many helping hands. How about a second keyboard? Use an electronic wonder like a Roland to add color and depth to the music and give the illusion of orchestral warmth.

The One Opera in One Hour shows are a great idea, and they’ve been used not only to give the Young Artists some more valuable stage experience, but to give directors a chance to try some fresh concepts and Palm Beach Opera itself to perform much more repertory. Now that this series is expanding, it’s a good time for the company to look at what works and what doesn’t, and keep them the special theatrical treat they are.

The Palm Beach Opera will present Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land in its next One Opera in One Hour presentation, set for 8 p.m. Friday at the Harriet Himmel Theater in CityPlace. Admission is free, but reserved seating is available for $15. For more information, call 833-7888.