Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Brazilian rhythm king
Bossa nova legend Sergio Mendes brings the beat to Boca.
On Monday, the Festival of the Arts Boca announced that bossa nova king Sergio Mendes and lanky, animated cat Pink Panther will lead the 2017 bill of concerts, films and author appearances in Boca Raton.
Tickets will go on sale at Nov. 1 for the March 2-12 festival of top-tier thinkers and performers, with admission ranging from $9.99 to $125 per show at FestivalBoca.org.
The 75-year-old Mendes and his rechristened band Brasil 2017 will close out the showcase March 12 at Mizner Park Amphitheater. Mendes, an epitome of 1960s cool who pioneered a brand of bossa nova-jazz fusion, is touring the 50th anniversary release of “Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66.” Alpert and his wife, Brasil ’66 lead singer Lani Hall, performed at the festival in 2015.
The $9.99 performance belongs to “La Boheme” (7:30 p.m. March 4), a stripped-down version of the opera with full costumes but few elaborate set pieces under the baton of conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos. Over the summer, Kitsopoulos raised $18,000 via Kickstarter to offset ticket prices for the opera, performed with the Symphonia, Boca Raton. Kitsopoulos and the Symphonia will also join Grammy-winning saxophonist Branford Marsalis for a 7 p.m. March 3 program celebrating the soundtracks of film composer John Williams (“Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” “Jaws”).
Kitsopoulos will also join University of Miami’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra for a screening of the 1963 comedy-mystery classic “The Pink Panther,” which spawned the iconic pink cat and bafflingly inept French detective Inspector Clouseau, played originally by Peter Sellers. The score, created by Mancini, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. March 11 by the orchestra while the film plays.
Pultizer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan (“A Visit From the Goon Squad”) will top the lineup of authors at 7 p.m. March 2, possibly bearing her forthcoming novel, “Manhattan Beach.” Also appearing are New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham (“American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House”) and theoretical physicist Brian Greene (“The Elegant Universe”).