With South Florida establishing itself as one of the leading performing arts destinations in the world, the spotlight will soon shine on the Frost School of Music, which is set to debut a world premiere of the opera “The Leopard” on March 5 and 6 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center.
“ ‘The Leopard’ is a prestigious and noteworthy world premiere, drawing attention and attendance from stakeholders with the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera America, and other organizations, emphasized Shelly Berg, dean of the Frost School of Music. “The Frost School will be a focal point in the opera world.”
Jeffrey Buchman, stage director for the Frost Opera Theater, explained that this is the most ambitious opera production the Frost School of Music has ever done.
“We have our world-class faculty performing alongside some of opera’s future stars to a score that is rich, moving, and deserves to be heard live in the theater,” he said.
The opera, based on the internationally acclaimed 1958 novel “Il Gattopardo” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, is set in Sicily in the year 1860 and is seen through the eyes of Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, also known as the Leopard. Known for his commanding personality, he is a member of an impoverished Sicilian aristocracy soon to be obsolete. Now facing a society in upheaval, he is forced to choose between decay and progress and the downfall of the nobility and the future of his family.
“The story is one that resonates today. It is about change and how societies and—in the case of the Leopard—powerful and influential people choose to handle major changes in societal structures. The opera also shows us how those decisions affect individuals on a very personal level.”
Margarita Parsamyan, a first-year master’s degree student majoring in vocal performance, will be portraying the character of Concetta, the daughter of Prince Fabrizio.
“I am the most excited for the fact that I will be premiering this role. I have such a big responsibility to be the first person singing the role because I will be the reference to others singing the role of Concetta in the future,” she acknowledges.
Some of music’s best and brightest will be joining students to perform this opera. Metropolitan Opera baritone Kim Josephson, who will play the Leopard, will perform alongside star colleagues Robynne Redmon, Frank Ragsdale, and Kevin Short.
“Students come to Frost to work with peerless faculty, and now our opera students will be able to perform alongside their mentors, who have sung leading roles in the major opera houses of the world,” said Berg.
Parsamyan explained that this experience has been an opportunity to learn from some of the most seasoned artists in the industry.
“I’ve truly enjoyed the rehearsal process very much because I've been able to work with professionals that I look up to in the field,” she said. “Every chance is a learning moment for me during the rehearsals when I sing alongside legendary singers on stage and learn how to approach my character with the guidance of the highly supportive artistic team.”
Alan Johnson, artistic director, acknowledged how valuable this world premiere is for students.
“Students are now interacting with faculty in a unique way. This opportunity is in many ways like an apprenticeship where they can learn from somebody who knows their craft so well. It's a rare occasion when faculty and students work together for a performance. They'll remember this the rest of their lives,” said Johnson.
Nicole Plummer, a junior double majoring in vocal performance and French, has been working behind the scenes as an assistant stage manager.
“I am so glad I got the opportunity to be on the production side of things for this opera because I have learned so much that I never would have known otherwise,” she noted. “Being able to say that you were among the first people in the world to see a production is not something many people can say. On top of that, the cast and crew are just truly incredible, and they are breathing such life into something that has never been done before. It is a magical thing to be a part of.”
Frost Opera Theater and the Frost Symphony Orchestra, led by the internationally recognized conductor Gerard Schwarz, will premiere this third opera collaboration by composer Michael Dellaira and poet/librettist J. D. McClatchy, which was completed shortly before the passing of McClatchy in 2018.
“This opera is unique in its nature because we are working on a world premiere with a living composer, which becomes so special. To have the opportunity to speak with a composer as I am crafting the way we will tell the story visually and dramatically is a truly unique experience,” said Buchman. “It is a gift, and in this case, Michael Dellaira has written a stunningly beautiful and moving score that captures the heart of this story and its characters in vivid detail.”
Buchman noted that creating a world premiere always brings a high level of excitement. “Everyone is working so hard in their individual contributions to this production. I cannot wait to sit in the theater for these performances and experience the work as it publicly breathes its first breaths,” he said.
The Frost Opera Theater encourages everyone—whether they are opera aficionados or attending for the first time—be part of this magical experience.
“The audience will be able to step outside of their everyday lives and walk into a beautiful world of art and learn about a story that will be told vividly in a multidisciplinary way,” Johnson declared.
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Lowe Art Museum
Tuesdays at 1 p.m.—March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Mindfulness with the Lowe
The Lowe’s Art of Mindfulness remote sessions take place on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Each session will last approximately 40 minutes (a 30-minute guided practice with a 10-minute reflection and Q&A).
Registration is required to participate in these free virtual sessions. Visit the Lowe for more information.
Friday, March 11, 11 a.m.–12 p.m.
Coffee, Tea, What Do You See?
Grab your favorite morning beverage and join the Lowe for a virtual interactive discussion about art from the museum's collection. Led by the members of the Lowe staff, participants will be asked open-ended questions about works of art to stimulate a group discussion.
Thursday, March 31, 5:30–6:30 p.m.
Lowe Connects: Radical Conventions: Cuban American Art from the 1980s
Join us for a conversation between Elizabeth Cerejido, the Esperanza Bravo de Varona chair and director of the Cuban Heritage Collection, and Ana Clara Silva, director of exhibitions at Faena Art, as they discuss Radical Conventions: Cuban American Art from the 1980s. The exhibit is on view through June 12 at the Lowe Art Museum.
A landmark exhibition, Radical Conventions is the first major museum presentation to focus solely on Cuban American art created during the 1980s. By exploring the heterogeneous nature of Cuban diasporic work from this pivotal decade, the show offers a critical counterpoint to an often binary, identity-focused narrative by framing the artists’ works more expansively within the aesthetic frameworks prevalent in the American avant-garde from the late 1970s to 1980s and the era’s broader socioeconomic, cultural, and political landscape. The exhibition features nearly 100 works by more than 25 Cuban American artists representative of various generations including Luis Cruz Azaceta, Fernando García, Nereida García-Ferraz, Félix González-Torres, Tony Labat, María Martínez-Cañas, Luis Medina, Ana Mendieta, and Carmelita Tropicana.
Wynwood Gallery
On view until March 14
The University of Miami presents “Bright Embers,” a Master of Fine Arts exhibition by Talia Ceravolo at the University of Miami Wynwood Gallery. The show features a series of vibrantly colored portraits painted on a selection of square and hand-built, organically shaped canvases.
2750 NW Third Ave., Suite 4
Miami, FL 33127
Get more information.
Frost School of Music
Thursday, March 3, 7:30 p.m.
Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Frost Concert Jazz Band with Terri Lyne Carrington
John Daversa, director; Terri Lyne Carrington, guest drummer
Frost Concert Jazz Band joins forces with drummer, producer, and educator Terri Lyne Carrington. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, multiple Grammy Award winner, Doris Duke Award recipient, and founder and artistic director for the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Carrington has recorded and toured with countless jazz luminaries including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, and Dianne Reeves. In 2013, she made history as the first woman to win a Grammy in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category.
Buy tickets.
Saturday, March 5, and Sunday, March 6, 3 p.m.
South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center
The world premiere of “The Leopard” presented by the Frost Opera Theater and Frost Symphony Orchestra.
Music by Michael Dellaira and libretto by J.D. McClatchy; Gerard Schwarz, conductor; Alan Johnson, music director; Jeffrey Buchman, stage director; Frost Opera Theater students with Kim Josephson, baritone; Robynne Redmon, mezzo-soprano; Frank Ragsdale, tenor; and guest artist Kevin Short.
The opera is based on the internationally acclaimed 1958 novel “Il Gattopardo” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, a Sicilian aristocrat who chronicled the changes in Sicily during the revolutionary times of the Italian Risorgimento. Lampedusa’s protagonist is Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, and known as “The Leopard” for his commanding personality. A member of an impoverished aristocracy, soon to be obsolete, the prince reluctantly adjusts to the modern world to guarantee his family’s future—and in doing so, sacrifices the happiness of one of them.
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Friday, March 11, 7:30 p.m.
Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Music of Mason Bates—Frost Wind Ensemble; Robert Carnochan, conductor
Composer of the Grammy Award-winning opera, “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” Mason Bates was named the most-performed composer of his generation in a recent survey of American music. As a composer, DJ, and curator, he is transforming how classical music is created and experienced. Legendary conductors from Riccardo Muti to Michael Tilson Thomas have championed him, and his symphonic music received widespread acceptance for its unique integration of electronic sounds. Bates’ “Bootleggers Break” makes its world premiere.
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Saturday, March 26, 7:30 p.m.
Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
American Brass Quintet
The American Brass Quintet is recognized as one of the leading chamber ensembles of our time. Winners of multiple awards including the 2013 recipient of Chamber Music America’s highest honor and the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, the Quintet’s plentiful legacy includes performances around the world, nearly 60 recordings, and the premieres of more than 150 contemporary brass works.
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Center for the Humanities
Thursday March 3, 7 p.m.
Henry King Stanford Distinguished Professors Lecture with John McNeill: ‘‘Ingredients of Industrialization: Ecological Teleconnections and Global Environmental History”
This lecture presents a new perspective on the history of the Industrial Revolution by focusing on the environmental consequences of production of ever-increasing quantities of fibers, ores, lubricants, and other components of 19-century industry. Examples include East African elephant ivory, New Zealand wool, and North American bison leather, among others.
In-person registration.
Virtual registration.
University Libraries
Wednesdays, 4–5 p.m., March 2, 9, 23, 30
Mindfulness at Richter
The University of Miami Libraries offers introductory mindfulness sessions for cultivating calm and focus. These 45-minute sessions introduce the fundamentals of mindfulness with periods of guided practice and opportunities for reflection and questions.
March 3, 1 p.m.
Creating Caribbean Vacation Lands
Join Elizabeth S. Manley for a presentation that will explore the role of women in Caribbean tourism development across the 20th century using materials from the Pan American World Airways records, housed in Special Collections at the University of Miami.
Wednesday, March 9, 8 p.m.
Book Talk with Nathaniel Deyo, lecturer, English Composition
Film Noir and the Possibilities of Hollywood
Nathaniel Deyo's book offers close, detailed reading of well-known noirs, taking the full measure of their formal and stylistic achievements above and beyond their enactment of some pre-established understanding of what it means—formally or ideologically—to be a ‘‘film noir.’’ The text also considers noir in the popular imaginations, as a fetish object for both online cinephile communities and a point of reference for decidedly non-cinephile media objects. Expanding upon and challenging existing academic discourse surrounding noir, the author refuses to ‘‘flatten’’ the films under consideration into a single, homogenous text.
Wednesday, March 23, 8 p.m.
Book Talk with Kathryn Freeman, professor, English
Rethinking the Romantic Era: Androgynous Subjectivity and the Recreative in the Writings of Mary Robinson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Mary Shelley
Focusing on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Robinson, and Mary Shelley, this book uses key concepts of androgyny, subjectivity, and the re-creative as a productive framework to trace the fascinating textual interactions and dialogues among these authors. It crosses the boundary between male and female writers of the Romantic period by linking representations of gender with late Enlightenment upheavals regarding creativity and subjectivity, demonstrating how these interrelated concerns dismantle traditional binaries separating the canonical and the noncanonical; male and female; poetry and prose; good and evil; and subject and object.
Cosford Cinema
Thursday, March 3, 6–8:30 p.m.
World Hearing Day Special Test Screening: “Rally Caps”
UHealth Children’s Hearing Program will host a private test screening of the upcoming motion picture “Rally Caps” in honor of World Hearing Day. Because the movie is a work in progress, attendees will be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement and fill out a brief questionnaire at the end of the screening for feedback purposes. The event will conclude with a live discussion with the filmmakers and members of the UHealth Children’s hearing program.
Wednesday, March 9, 5 p.m.
Miami Film Festival: Short Documentary Film Award
Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival partners with the Cosford Cinema to present a program of five exemplary short documentaries, competing for the Short Documentary Film Award, sponsored by the University of Miami School of Communication.
Saturday, March 19, 5 p.m.
Watching Movies With: Jacqueline Charles
Join Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles and Cosford Cinema manager Rene Rodriguez for a screening and discussion of George Tillman Jr.’s “Soul Food.”
Other showings this month include: “The French Dispatch,” “House of Gucci,” and “Last Night in Soho.”
Visit the Cosford Cinema for showtimes and more information.
