FAU serves up “Morning Joe,” a master of a rare stringed instrument visits the Flagler, and the Velvet Teddy Bear plays Mizner Park. Plus, “La Traviata” and more in your week ahead.
TUESDAY
What: Valencia Baryton Project
Where: Flagler Museum, 1 Whitehall Way, Palm Beach
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $75
Contact: 561/655-2833, flaglermuseum.us
Everything old is new again, especially in the music world. Take the baryton, a cello-sized, 10-stringed instrument reportedly created in the early 17th century. Joseph Haydn produced 175 compositions for it, and it remained in vogue through the 18th century, only to be consigned to obscurity in the 19th. Few in the modern era have learned how to play it, but among a class of elite classical virtuosos, it’s experiencing a niche revival. Matthew Baker, founder of the Valencia Baryton Project, remains among the handful of professional baryton performers worldwide. At this one-of-a-kind entry in the Flagler’s 2025 music series, Baker and his merry band of string musicians are expected to play some of Haydn’s masterpieces the way they were intended, along with more contemporary compositions.
THURSDAY
What: Joe Scarborough
Where: Kaye Auditorium at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
When: 4 p.m.
Cost: $35-$75
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
A former Republican congressman from the Panhandle, this pundit has for 17 seasons held the co-anchor’s chair on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where his commentary helps set the day’s agenda across a sprawling four-hour program. At the end of last year, Mediaite christened “Morning Joe” the sixth-most influential entity in news media; Scarborough has also made Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. He’ll visit FAU’s Kaye Auditorium for the university’s annual Symposium on the American Presidency for a lecture titled “The Presidency After the Election: The Story So Far and What’s Next.”
FRIDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Palm Beach Opera’s “La Traviata”
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $25-$170
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
In what has become his most famous letter, Giuseppe Verdi wrote to a friend after the opening night of his opera “La Traviata” in 1853 that, “’La traviata’ last night was a failure. Was the fault mine or the singers’? Time will tell.” First of all, considering the ever-inflating 21st century ego, an artist showing such vulnerability and self-questioning these days is rare. But secondly, the notion that “La Traviata” is a failure borders on blasphemy; time has shown that the fault was definitely not Verdi’s. The story, about a damaged young courtesan suffering from “consumption” who falls in love with a passionate young suitor in decadent 19th century Paris has become one of the world’s most-beloved operatic dramas, one with a real-life provenance: It’s inspired by the tragic life of French courtesan Marie Duplessis, first immortalized in a novel by Alexandre Dumas. Expect lavish costumes and sets in Palm Beach Opera’s second production of the season.
FRIDAY
What: Ruben Studdard
Where: The Studio at Mizner Park, 201 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
When: 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $40-$80
Contact: 561/203-3742, thestudioatmiznerpark.com
The winner of the second season of “American Idol”—back when the series was a ratings behemoth and the epitome of appointment television—Ruben Studdard emerged victorious over rival Clay Aiken by all of 134,000 votes out of more than 24 million cast. Aiken was magnanimous in defeat; in fact, the two finalists have toured together as recently as 2023. For this solo performance, though, it’s all about the “Velvet Teddy Bear” himself, who has enjoyed a model post-“Idol” career, releasing a platinum debut album and earning a Grammy nomination in turn. Studdard has enjoyed a simultaneous acting career, whose zenith has been portraying Fats Waller on a national tour of “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and he’s lent his Luther Vandross-level voice and charisma to eight LPs of pop, gospel and R&B favorites, plus inspired original compositions. He visits Boca this month on his “Masterpiece” tour.
SUNDAY
What: Opening night of Boca International Jewish Film Fest
Where: Cinemark Palace 20, 3200 Airport Road, Boca Raton
When: Various show times
Cost: $50-$199 for festival passes; individual film tickets TBD
Contact: jfilmboca.org
Now in its second year, Southeast Florida’s largest festival of international Jewish and Israeli cinema features dozens of features, documentaries and shorts that illuminate myriad aspects of the Jewish experience here and abroad. While not all titles have been announced as of this writing, the keynote movies attest to the festival’s big-tent appeal. Opening-night doc “Diane Warren: Relentless” offers a peak into the enigmatic life of the circumspect songwriter, who has penned hits for Cher, Aerosmith and Taylor Swift but has yet to win an Oscar for her work—despite 15 of her songs earning nominations. The closing-night film, “Guns & Moses,” is a slice of comedic pulp fiction in which a rabbi becomes an unlikely gunslinger after his community is threatened; it stars Dermot Mulroney and Christopher Lloyd. Other expected highlights include “The President’s Tailor,” about a real-life tailor trained by the Gestapo who reinvented himself in the U.S. and made suits for President Eisenhower, among countless luminaries. The festival continues through March 16.
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